Does rapamycin slow aging or just prevent cancer?

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#1

Hi folks,

I would think that there are several findings that might be in direct conflict with the findings or the apparent conclusion from this study, which is not new btw:

“The increase in lifespan was observed only in the tumor-bearing cohort.” a sentence in the article reads.

So, is rapamycin merely a cancer treatment, in mice, and that is why it extends lifespan? If not, what are major findings that rapamycin extends lifespan through slowing of aging itself? And any comments on this one as well, which is in line with the above study: Deep phenotyping and lifetime trajectories reveal limited effects of longevity regulators on the aging process in C57BL/6J mice - PubMed

/Inge

#2

We know that Rapamycin prevents age related cardiomyopathy in dogs. Everolimus improved immune response to a vaccine in humans. The anti cancer property of Rapamycin may be related to improved immune function. Rapamycin really affects many of the hallmarks of aging.

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#3

Everolimus is also an approved cancer treatment in humans.

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#4

Personally, I don’t care if it actually extends lifespan. It certainly extends healthspan. The benefits of rapamycin are probably more apparent in old people like me. Rapamycin has had a profound effect on how I feel.
The leading cause of death after heart disease in the elderly is cancer and rapamycin seems to ward off most cancers.

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#5

There is a lot of evidence of benefits aside from the cancer benefit, including (after just a quick review of our rapamycin FAQ) …

Here: Can Rapamycin repair your organs and therefore reverse aging?

here: Rapamycin Prevents Blood Stem Cell Aging, New MIT Study

here: Women Taking Rapamycin for Enhanced Fertility / Menopause Prevention?

here: The Case for Starting Rapamycin Earlier in Life (e.g. late 20s) vs middle age (e.g. 50s)

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#6

mTOR is implicated in just about everything in our bodies so it would be almost inconceivable that suppressing it would not lead to downstream changes in all sorts of systems far and above cancer.

#7

I would look over the study more as the conclusion I got was not that rapamycin’s extension of lifespan in this study was due to treating cancer.

Treatment with rapamycin shifted the survival curve to the right and increased the mean lifespan by 7.8% of the last 10% survivors. Rapamycin also increased the median lifespan by 10.1% as well as the maximum lifespan by 9.3% by increas-ing the average lifespan of the long-lived mice, decreasing initial mortality when treatment began in midlife.

This right here shows that it increases lifespan not just by treating cancer.

A thing to consider is that mice typically die from cancer in comparison to other laboratory animals. So in this study it would make sense that Rapamycin significantly decreased the number of tumor-bearing mice. Rapamycin also shifted the tumor-yield curve to the right and prolonged mean lifespan of long-lived tumor-bearing mice. Again, makes sense since rapamycin is extending lifespan and one of the main causes of mouse death is cancer.

They also repeated some healthspan stuff to such as :
Treatment with rapamycin significantly inhibited age-related weight gain in female mice.
At the age of 18 mo, 46% and 65% mice had regular estrous cycle in control and rapamycin-treated groups, respectively

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