this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2024
84 points (91.2% liked)
Technology
59963 readers
3495 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It all depends on the dosage. Remember, suppressing the immune system means that you are reducing inflammation, which in aging is a huge component.
As the dosing regimen hasn't been nailed down, you can absolutely overdo this and cause problems, but currently a low to medium dose only once a week, not once a day, is the regimen.
The primary mechanism of action for low-dose rapamycin in longevity is inhibiting mTOR. Reduced inflammation is an important side effect, but mTOR inhibition is the goal. It mimicks fasting, causing cells to ramp up autophagy—a natural process by which organisms recycle half-functioning cells (senescent cells) and use the proteins to build new cells that function properly and don't produce toxic byproducts.
mTOR inhibition is not the only pathway in cellular metabolism that triggers autophagy, but it's a major one with a measurable effect.
In simpler terms, inhibiting mTOR by fasting (or by mimicking fasting with intermittent low-dose rapamycin), signals that times are tough and pushes organisms to hunker down for survival. This is good, because it promotes better overall health at a cellular level. The reduction of toxic byproducts from senescent cells is likely a driver of the reduced inflammation that has been observed.
That said, "anti-aging" is a cringey buzzword that hurts the credibility of the field.
Rapamycin has the most promise of any longevity intervention, with over 20 years of research and results that have been reproduced by the NIH.
It's difficult to fund a clinical trial in humans for this particular use of rapamycin, however, because there is no profit motive for pharmaceutical companies. FDA approval for new uses of an off-patent drug won't make pharma companies rich. The same problem exists for research on many traditional medicines.