Late life metformin treatment limits cell survival and shortens lifespan by triggering an aging-associated failure of energy metabolism

A concerning result. Questions would include does this worm study correlate to humans? What is “old age” in a human compared to a worm? Maybe this study reinforces the importance of senolytics.

David Sinclair’s tweet on this:   “Thought provoking study suggesting the diabetes & putative longevity drug metformin disrupts old mitochondria. Given we have a lot of data in humans already, we probably should mention this is a study in nematode worms.”  

https://mobile.twitter.com/davidasinclair

These are my comments made on reddit when this research was discussed:

”

I am a 68 year old retired petroleum engineer. I am not diabetic(per fasting glucose and HbA1C) but have some insulin resistance. I have been taking metformin for 2 months.
Some thoughts about this paper which implies that metformin might be harmful for older people.

- why did they choose to test only on human senescent fibroblasts - as the older cells? Is this representative of the entire human body?

- could there be less ill effects if senescent cells are reduced through senolytic therapy before taking metformin?

- they indicate that the human fibroblasts are harmed by metformin because of insufficient ATP production in those cells. They also write the harm can be alleviated by increased ATP production or by the drug Rapamycin

- I understand that the NAD activators (NR and NMN) increase ATP production. So what about taking one of these first to increase ATP production?

IMHO, this paper cannot be understood just by reading the title or abstract.”