An immunosuppressant to age better?

Rapamycin is primarily an inhibitor of mTOR, a central molecule in a large number of physiological mechanisms and whose deregulation can lead to cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and metabolic diseases.

mTOR, a major player in our cells

It is very complex to understand all of mTOR’s roles in our body, because of its multitude of sometimes contradictory actions on a myriad of physiological and pathological processes[5, 6]. It is a kinase enzyme involved in proliferation, growth, mobility and cell survival but also in protein synthesis and transcription[5]. It is the target of rapamycin, hence its name: mechanistic Target Of Rapamycin.

Role of rapamycin in the fight against aging

Knowing this, it is understandable that researchers were interested in rapamycin and mTOR. Studies, currently at the animal stage, show that taking rapamycin in small doses increases lifespan in mice[7, 8] or dogs[9], without having a significant effect on aging characteristics[8]. In monkeys, a preliminary study shows that marmosets appear to have fewer side effects than in other species[10].

In humans, there are very few studies, but in one of them, it was demonstrated that taking rapamycin, for the elderly subject, increased the vaccine response[11], a very contradictory result with the immunosuppressive effect of rapamycin. Many teams are trying to understand the ins and outs of a possible treatment against aging with rapamycin[12, 13, 14, 15] without, for the moment, reaching a consensus.