Metformin is a hypoglycemic agent used clinically in the treatment of type 2 diabetics. In addition, metformin is being investigated as a potential geroprotector. Here, we investigated the effects of metformin silkworm lifespan and the underlying molecular pathways involved. We found that metformin prolonged the lifespan of the male silkworm without reducing body weight, which suggests metformin can increase lifespan through remodeling of the animal’s energy distribution strategy. Consistent with that idea, metformin reduced silk production and thus the energy devoted to that process. Metformin also increased fasting tolerance and levels of the antioxidant glutathione, and also activated an adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase-p53-forkhead box class O signaling pathway in silkworm. These results suggest that activity in this pathway may contribute to metformin-induced lifespan extension in silkworm by increasing stress resistance and antioxidative capacity while reducing energy output for silk product. The results also show that the silkworm is a potential useful animal model for evaluating the effects of small molecules with potential clinical utility.

Background: Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), an FGF family member, is an atypical hormone and pro-longevity factor.Methods: To better understand of the effects of exogenous administration of FGF21 on lifespan and stress tolerance, and the underlying molecular basis, we used the silkworm, Bombyx mori, as an experimental animal model to evaluate FGF21's pharmaceutical effects.Results: Lifespan was significantly prolonged in female silkworms with FGF21 replenishment, whereas no effect was observed in the male silkworms. FGF21 replenishment also significantly improved the activity of antioxidant systems such as glutathione-S-transferase (GST) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and significantly decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) content. Moreover, FGF21 was found to play a critical role in enhancing stress resistance, including ultraviolet (UV) irradiation tolerance and thermotolerance. Furthermore, AMPK, FoxO, and sirtuins were activated by FGF21 and may be responsible for the prolonged lifespan and enhanced antioxidant activity observed in silkworms.Conclusions: Collectively, the results suggest the molecular pathways underlying of FGF21-induced longevity and stress tolerance, and support the use of silkworms as a promising experimental animal model for evaluating the pharmaceutical effects of small molecules.

BACKGROUND Creating credible and engaging health communication materials is knowledge- and labor-intensive. OBJECTIVE We propose a low-cost alternative by classifying lay health articles by relevance and topic using natural language processing (NLP). METHODS With postpartum depression as a case study, we conducted a manual review of online lay articles to classify articles on their relevance to pregnancy and topics. To scale the classification process on relevance and topics, we built models using Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), Generative Pre-trained Transformer model (ChatGPT), and Random Forest. RESULTS The gold standard corpus included 392 articles. A BERT-based model performed best (F1= 0.974) in an end-to-end classification of relevance and topics. In a two-step approach, given articles already classified as related to pregnancy, ChatGPT was best (F1 = 0.972) in classifying topics. CONCLUSIONS With NLP, we may repurpose lay reading materials as low-cost and easily accessible health education and communication sources.