An FDA-approved drug routinely used to treat Alzheimer’s disease may one day help to induce a hibernation-like state in humans. The idea is not to help you survive the winter like a bear. Rather, the hope is that the drug, known as donepezil (DNP), could be repurposed to preserve human organs and tissues during medical emergencies. From Alzheimer’s to Torpor: A Surprising DiscoveryThe researchers, working with tadpoles of the Xenopus laevis frog species, discovered that donepezil could put the animals into a reversible state of torpor — a form of suspended animation that slows down metabolic p…