{"id":452693,"date":"2026-09-03T23:44:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T23:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/452693\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T23:44:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T23:44:30","slug":"glp-1-treatment-extends-the-lifespan-of-older-healthy-mice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/452693\/","title":{"rendered":"GLP-1 Treatment Extends the Lifespan of Older, Healthy Mice"},"content":{"rendered":"

A glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist prescribed to help people manage obesity and type 2 diabetes extended the lifespan of older, healthy mice, according to a new study led by researchers in UC Berkeley\u2019s Department of Metabolic Biology & Nutrition.<\/p>\n

\"A
\nShutterly\/Adobe Stock<\/p>\n

Published September 2 in\u00a0Nature<\/a>, the findings show that semaglutide, commonly sold as Ozempic and Wegovy, mimicked the anti-aging benefits of calorie restriction\u2014and in some cases surpassed them. The results suggest that, in addition to delaying the onset of age-related metabolic disease, GLP-1s may act on the biological factors that contribute to physiological aging.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very excited by this new study, because it could potentially broaden the application of GLP-1 medicines to healthy aging individuals to extend lifespan and healthspan,\u201d said\u00a0Danica Chen<\/a>, the study\u2019s corresponding author and a professor of metabolic biology and nutrition.\u00a0Yufan Feng, a postdoctoral researcher in Chen\u2019s lab, served as the study\u2019s lead author.<\/p>\n

To understand the potential impact of GLP-1s on aging, the study\u2019s authors administered semaglutide to 20-month-old female mice for three months. Treated mice showed improved muscle and cognitive function compared with untreated mice. Genetic analysis also confirmed that several hallmarks of natural aging\u2014including inflammation and poor regenerative capacity\u2014were reduced in treated animals. Mice that received semaglutide injections until the end of their life lived, on average, 100 days longer than those that did not.<\/p>\n

In a separate, five-month experiment, the researchers compared the benefits of semaglutide to a 24% reduction in calories. Mice who received the drug exhibited higher levels of exploratory behavior, better spatial memory, and improved blood-sugar maintenance than those on a calorie-restricted diet. Calorie-restricted mice had a slower metabolic rate than normal, while the metabolic rate among mice treated with semaglutide was largely unchanged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese differences point to the possibility that GLP-1 drugs tap into a biological pathway independent of calorie restriction,\u201d said Chen. While there is no indication that similar results could be immediately achieved in humans, the authors add that the study may guide future research into semaglutide\u2019s effects on human longevity.<\/p>\n

\u201cUncovering this potential route and the benefits that may specifically stem from it is an important direction for future research into the development of longevity-enhancing interventions,\u201d said Chen.<\/p>\n

UC Berkeley co-authors include\u00a0Yifei Wang,\u00a0Yibing Chen,\u00a0Huixian Qiu,\u00a0Chih-Ling Wang,\u00a0Kartoosh Heydari, and\u00a0Melaine Delcroix. Additional co-authors include researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the National Institute on Aging. Funding was provided by the National Institute on Aging (#R01AG063404, #R01AG063389, and #R01AG082105) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist prescribed to help people manage obesity and type 2 diabetes extended the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[139452,143,145,144,139450,139451],"class_list":["post-452693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-faculty-excellence","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-research-berkeley","tag-uc-berkeley-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}