Researchers are going to start testing Metformin, a medication used for the treatment of diabetes, as an anti-aging drug in a clinical trial in the coming year. When the medication is used to treat type 2 diabetes, the drug cuts the glucose produced in the liver, but according to researchers it could also slow down the aging process in individual cells by boosting the level of oxygen released into every cell.

The research has suggested that cutting the biological effects of aging is indicative of the probability of longer lifespans, staving off aging-related diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and possibly would allow humans to live their lives till their 110s or 120s.

While speaking to National Geographic, regarding the TAME trial for an episode of the science program Breakthrough, Dr. Jay Olshansky, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois Chicago said, “In terms of a public health impact, this would be the most important medical intervention in the modern era”.

As per the Diabetes Teaching Center at the University of California, San Francisco, Metformin is the most widely-used type 2 diabetes medication in the world.

The Telegraph reported that the FDA's approval of the ‘Targeting Aging With Metformin’, or TAME, trial has followed the promising previous research into the effects of the drug.