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New Research Finds Short-Term Exposure To This Anti-Aging Drug May Increase Lifespan And Decrease Negative Effects Of Aging

opolja - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purpose only, not the actual person

Imagine if humans could live forever. This idea has mesmerized the public for centuries and has inspired countless sci-fi book series, comics, films, and even research studies.

But, scientists are more concerned with fighting the negative effects of aging and maintaining patient health nowadays. And a new study conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Aging has made some significant headway in this sector.

The researchers recognized that while lifestyle changes can definitely help ease the burden of ailments as people age, it is not enough. So, they began working with the most promising anti-aging drug currently known to man– and it is called rapamycin.

Rapamycin is an immunosuppressant and cell growth inhibitor that is typically utilized during cancer therapy or following organ transplants.

And the research team believed that repurposing this existing drug in smaller doses could prove effective in battling age-related decline.

“At the doses used clinically, rapamycin can have undesirable side effects. But for the use of the drug in the prevention of age-related decline, these need to be absent or minimal,” began Dr. Paula Juricic, the study’s lead investigator.

“Therefore, we wanted to find out when and how long we need to give rapamycin in order to achieve the same effects as lifelong treatment.”

In turn, the scientists tested various time windows of drug administration in fruit flies and discovered that a two-week window of rapamycin given to young adult fruit flies extended their lives and prevented age-related pathology.

A treatment window of three months was also found to be successful in young adult mice– showing the same benefits on intestinal health.

opolja – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purpose only, not the actual person

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