Not sure… BUT she is the “CEO” of the company after all, not just a “co-founder”.
Her company is in the “Business” of developping Rapalogs.
I think that how to make Money and understanding the Market you play in, in terms of Sales, Volumes, Growth-rates, Competitors, Marketshares, Forecasts… should be appropriate questions to a CEO.
BTW: I also wondered if she could comment on whether it is thinkable that a hype around Rapamycin/Rapalogs for Longevity could create supply shortages going forward (ala Ozempic)
Think small molecules like rapa that have several different generic manufacturers are much easier to scale up production for vs for an on patent close to biologic and not a normal small molecule like the GLP-1 meds.
The “long-term use” question from Chat GPT made me wonder about the benefits of taking rapamycin continuously for years vs. taking in 3 month (weekly dosing) spurts with 3-6-12 months off. What is the rationale, if any, for taking it continuously? What is the upside (additional mTORC1 cycle restoration) vs. downside (money, mTORC2 suppression, long-term interference with something important)? Does anyone have any confidence about an answer to this question?
Well, the transplant patients generally take it for decades, so at least it doesn’t seem to kill them
I think the real answer is that hopefully in the next decade we get much better data. But the the “long term” issue is something that is true for every medication taken for a long time. At the time the medication is FDA approved, nobody knows the long term effects. But we have the benefit of Rapamycin having been approved and used for the past 20 years already.
I think the question about lack of dose/response is a good one.
I also wonder about a question people have asked in the forum previously, about how to interpret the immunity boost with regard to age mitigation, or anti -aging. How does Joan reconcile the data that suggests that higher is better (when looking at the very high dosing levels seen in mice) when it comes to longevity, vs. what she saw in her clinical trial where there was not much of a dose response?
I meant as well of an effect as the 5 mg dose. 20 mg once a week technically did not improve immunosenescence since it didn’t meet the trial endpoint, of 1.2 x increase for two strains.
Lloyd Klickstein said that the rationale for stopping everolimus two weeks before giving the flu vaccine was to show that the immunomodulatory effect was not not due to acute effects of the drug, but to more durable changes in the aging host. That said, is she aware of any evidence that continuing on rapalogs right up to and/or after vaccination interferes with the vaccine or nullifies the observed benefit on vaccine response?
Hi Krister,
There is one question you could ask as I don’t think it was brought up in the other podcasts ::
Maintaining muscle mass is critical to avoid frailty on old people
and so requires being able to synthesise protein, Blocking synthesis of protein, (one thing that rapa does) with rapamycin :
is that means that we are blocking the building of muscle mass?
loosing muscle mass or not able to build muscle mass?
That can be an interesting point to get a answer from researcher Joan Mannick and what was seen in her study.
Hope that will be of some relevance during the podcast.
Thanks for this.
(1) For treating autoimmune conditions, rapalogs have been considered as steroid replacements or “steroid sparing agents”. Does this appear to be a valid use, and is there any progress on establishing safety/efficacy? Looking for info to show my doctor…
(2) Is any work being done on rapalogs to treat long covid’s damage to mitochondria, by enhancing mitophagy? Is the huge scale of long covid a lever to get attention to this drug family?
I heard the other day that Rapamycin can delay Alzheimer’s disease, but if an older person takes it after symptoms have clearly begun, it can accelerate it! Is this true?
You have to ask if Joan Mannick knew what David Gems was going to say in her session at the Hevolution Conference this week, before he said it, or if it was a complete surprise. She handled it well, but I suspect that having David’s virtual complete condemnation of current commercialization / translational efforts in geoscience was probably not something anyone really wanted at that venue.
@Jenny_Harrison I have not seen any study that shows that Rapamycin accelerates Alxheimer’s disease. Do you have any study which shows this would be interesting to read it.
@Agetron I would not interpret Kaeberlein’s current view as that rapamycin makes people immune to cancer and alzheimer’s. I know he is very frustrated that trials on Alzheimer’s and Rapamycin because of the promising potential. But he would not say that rapamycin makes humans immune to cancer or alzheimer’s. Even mice who take Rapamycin gets cancer. I think the Radiolab podcast is just a wrong saying from him which happens easy in podcast interview.
@RapAdmin I listened to that session a couple of days ago and my feeling is that it was a total suprise for everyone. My plan is to interview David in the future because he is a very smart person. I will then dig more into his view on the topic
From Krister…“I would not interpret Kaeberlein’s current view as that rapamycin makes people immune to cancer and alzheimer’s. I know he is very frustrated that trials on Alzheimer’s and Rapamycin because of the promising potential. But he would not say that rapamycin makes humans immune to cancer or alzheimer’s. Even mice who take Rapamycin gets cancer. I think the Radiolab podcast is just a wrong saying from him which happens easy in podcast interview.”
Exactly… which is why I emphasized twice in “mice studies”… do we extrapolate that to people? There does seem a cancer stalling benefit to those like Mikhail Blagosklonny and Seren Segal… lung and colon cancers.
Young people don’t have the cluttered cells, senescence cells issues of older people… and they don’t typically get alzheimer’s and cancers.
It would seem… using rapamycin to clear and repair cells (autophagy). And tamp down senescence would give same benefits as being younger.
