Semaglutide, the active ingredient in popular GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy, may do more than suppress appetite and improve blood sugar. A National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded study found that the drug reduced several harmful effects of aging and extended lifespan in older, healthy mice. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley compared semaglutide directly with calorie restriction, one of the best-known interventions for extending lifespan in laboratory animals.
The drug reproduced many of the anti-aging effects of eating less, but in several important areas, it appeared to go even further. The findings raise an intriguing possibility: GLP-1 drugs may influence the aging process itself. Earlier animal studies have shown that these drugs can delay the onset of multiple age-related diseases.
If semaglutide acts on biological mechanisms that drive aging, that could help explain why GLP-1 treatments have shown benefits across such a wide range of health conditions. "Most chronic diseases are deeply rooted in the aging process. If GLP-1 agonists do indeed slow it down, then a wide range of clinical benefits is exactly what you'd expect to see," said Rafael de Cabo, Ph.D., a senior investigator at the NIH's National Institute on Aging (NIA), and author of a commentary on the new study.
To see what semaglutide could do when aging was already well underway, a research team led by Danica Chen, Ph.D., gave the drug to 20-month-old female mice for three months. Compared with untreated mice, the animals receiving semaglutide showed better muscle and cognitive function. Gene activity also revealed improvements in several biological features associated with aging, including reduced inflammation and less decline in the body's ability to repair and regenerate tissue.
The lifespan results were especially striking. In a separate group treated with semaglutide until death, median lifespan was nearly 100 days longer than in untreated mice. Because semaglutide reduces appetite, the researchers wanted to know whether the apparent anti-aging effects simply came from consuming fewer calories.
To test that idea, they directly compared semaglutide with calorie restriction. For five months, one group of 20-month-old female mice received semaglutide, while another was placed on a 24% calorie-restricted diet designed to match how much the treated mice were eating. The two approaches produced many similar effects, and most physiological measurements remained stable.
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