A geroscience perspective on immune resilience and infectious diseases: a potential case for metformin

We are in the midst of the global pandemic. Though acute respiratory coronavirus (SARS-COV2) that leads to COVID-19 infects people of all ages, severe symptoms and mortality occur disproportionately in older adults. Geroscience interventions that target biological aging could decrease risk across mu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:GeroScience 2021-06, Vol.43 (3), p.1093-1112
Main Authors: Justice, Jamie N., Gubbi, Sriram, Kulkarni, Ameya S., Bartley, Jenna M., Kuchel, George A., Barzilai, Nir
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Aging
Antidiabetics
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Cell Biology
Chronic illnesses
Clinical trials
Communicable Diseases - drug therapy
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Geriatrics/Gerontology
Humans
Immunological memory
Infectious diseases
Life Sciences
Metformin
Metformin - therapeutic use
Molecular Medicine
Multicenter Studies as Topic
Original
Original Article
Pandemics
RNA, Viral
SARS-CoV-2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Vaccination
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Summary:We are in the midst of the global pandemic. Though acute respiratory coronavirus (SARS-COV2) that leads to COVID-19 infects people of all ages, severe symptoms and mortality occur disproportionately in older adults. Geroscience interventions that target biological aging could decrease risk across multiple age-related diseases and improve outcomes in response to infectious disease. This offers hope for a new host-directed therapeutic approach that could (i) improve outcomes following exposure or shorten treatment regimens; (ii) reduce the chronic pathology associated with the infectious disease and subsequent comorbidity, frailty, and disability; and (iii) promote development of immunological memory that protects against relapse or improves response to vaccination. We review the possibility of this approach by examining available evidence in metformin: a generic drug with a proven safety record that will be used in a large-scale multicenter clinical trial. Though rigorous translational research and clinical trials are needed to test this empirically, metformin may improve host immune defenses and confer protection against long-term health consequences of infectious disease, age-related chronic diseases, and geriatric syndromes.
ISSN:2509-2715
2509-2723
2509-2723
DOI:10.1007/s11357-020-00261-6