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Longevity supplements › Metformin and Aging › Studies

Randomized trial · measured lab tests or safety

Two small trials in people with HIV: blood cell age clocks fell with metformin

Corley and colleagues · Aging cell · 2024

Original title: Cell-type specific impact of metformin on monocyte epigenetic age reversal in virally suppressed older people living with HIV.

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What the study found

Points to benefit

In monocytes, PCPhenoAge and PCGrimAge estimates fell by a mean of 3.53 and 1.84 years from baseline to Week 24 in the metformin arm only. The single-arm trial showed no differences in CD8+ T cells.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
People living with HIV with virus under control and normal blood sugar (two small trials)
What was tested
Metformin added vs no added drug for 24 weeks; second trial single arm of 8 people for 4 to 8 weeks; blood cell epigenetic age clocks
What it measured
Lab tests or markers
How long
24 weeks
Who has a stake
Company stake
One author consults for AbbVie, ViiV Healthcare and Cytodyn, sits on Cytodyn board, and holds interests in Ledidi AS (said to be outside this work).
Journal
Aging cell, 2024
Source
PubMed record 37675817. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • –No comparison group: some changes might have happened anyway.
  • •The abstract does not say how many people took part.
  • •Lasted 24 weeks.
  • –Measured lab tests or markers, which stand in for aging, frailty and death in people without diabetes. A better marker does not always mean better health.
  • –Company stake: One author consults for AbbVie, ViiV Healthcare and Cytodyn, sits on Cytodyn board, and holds interests in Ledidi AS (said to be outside this work).
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: aging and age-related disease

    1

    1 benefit

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    3

    2 no difference, 1 harm

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    6

    2 benefit, 2 mixed, 2 no difference

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  4. Population studies

    8

    6 benefit, 2 no difference

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  6. Animals

    3

    2 benefit, 1 harm

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does metformin slow aging in people without diabetes?”

Not shown in people without diabetes.

Confidence: low. Based on 26 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 5 papers on the same step: 1 benefit, 2 mixed, 2 no difference. This one found benefit.

Other papers on the same step

See all 26 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads differed. The reviewer checked the abstract and kept the first read. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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