A NEW LOOK AT THE EFFECTS OF METFORMIN
One of the greatest achievements of the modern world is the increased duration of human life. However, this becomes a serious problem: as more people survive to old age, they are more likely to encounter diseases of old age, including diabetes mellitus type 2, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Developing new ways of improving health in old age, therefore, is a priority for biomedical research. Still there is a lack of new and effective treatments. One of the current alternative strategies for the development of medicines is becoming repurposing of existing drugs for treatment of other diseases. Metformin is one of these drugs, which are being explored new points of application. Retrospective epidemiological studies indicate a possible association between metformin and decreased cancer risk, as confirmed in animal studies in vitro. Also special attention is currently given to the key role of microbiota in regulating age-associated diseases and the potential role of metformin in modulating its function. These data should provide the impetus to conduct randomized controlled trials to confirm or refute these additional benefits of metformin.