MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Wouter De Haes
Functional Genomics and Proteomics (Schoofs lab)
Zoological Institute
Leuven Belgium
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: We discovered that the lifespan-extending effect of metformin is dependent on the increased production of reactive oxygen species in the roundworm
Caenorhabditis elegans. Antioxidants, compounds that remove these reactive oxygen species, abolished the lifespan-extending effect of metformin, adding to the growing body of evidence that anti-oxidants are not as beneficial for health as generally assumed. We also identified the protein, belonging to the group of peroxiredoxins, that seems responsible for translating this increase in
reactive oxygen species production into longevity.
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