Rapamycin and its role in aging

Recent research indicates rapamycin to be the only drug that improves mammalian longevity consistently.

As recently as 2009, researchers believed that aging was simply not treatable or, if it were, only growth factors would be able to have any impact on the seemingly-inexorable process. Two scientific approaches were available that could delay aging – restrictions of diet and/or growth factors by genetic means. People generally aren’t wild about restricting their diet or having their genes fiddled with, so these approaches were deemed to be unsuitable for use in humans.

But the problem of aging remained, and in an effort to overcome this, the National Institute of Aging established a program for the identification of compounds that could be rigorously tested for aging under a series of standard conditions. The goal of the program was to determine the effects of the drug on the lifespan of genetically heterogeneous mice of both sexes.

My take on this: The new intervention testing program (ITP) is advantageous since it included three test sites that were geographically separated, the test mice were designed to be genetically heterogeneous and involved both sexes; in addition, the site directors were experts in aging studies in rodents. ITP has been reported to be extremely successful to date, with about 64 different compounds tested or in the process of testing. Among them, 10 compounds have been reported to increase lifespan.

In a recent study published in Experimental Gerontology, researchers Zelton Dave Sharp and Randy Strong examined the results of the ITP 2009 test involving the drug rapamycin. They were interested in understanding the effects of rapamycin on aging and gaining insights into the drug's mechanism of action.

Rapamycin is a medication that was originally developed as an immunosuppressant to prevent organ transplant rejection. However, it has also shown promising effects in extending the lifespan and improving health in various organisms, including mice. This has led scientists to investigate its potential as an antiaging drug.

You can learn more about the exciting potential of rapamycin concerning aging HERE.

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