Mehmood Khan and Metformin: the frailty data
Look AHEAD frailty data grounds the Hevolution Foundation CEO's connection to metformin, one of geroscience's best-evidenced longevity candidates.
Mehmood Khan leads Hevolution Foundation, the largest grantmaking and investment fund in geroscience. The connection to metformin runs through diabetes drug research: pioglitazone was studied in combination with metformin.
The Look AHEAD trial (4,169 adults with type 2 diabetes, ages 45 to 76, 8 years of follow-up) found that metformin use was independently associated with slower growth in a deficit-accumulation frailty index, even after adjusting for HbA1c. The effect was not reducible to blood sugar control. Of three randomized trials of metformin in acute COVID-19, two showed improved clinical outcomes.
For the person managing the largest geroscience grant portfolio, metformin is one of the few molecules with real clinical evidence pointing toward slower aging.
High-confidence edge linking the CEO of the world's largest geroscience grantmaking fund to a compound with concrete clinical aging evidence. The pioglitazone-metformin combination research grounds the link substantively, and the Look AHEAD frailty finding gives the term weight beyond its diabetes history.