Press/Media: Expert Opinion
| Title | expert reaction to a meta-analysis looking at the effect of Rapamycin, Metformin, and dietary restriction on lifespan in vertebrates |
|---|---|
| Degree of recognition | International |
| Media name/outlet | Science Media Center |
| Primary Media type | Web |
| Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
| Date | 19/06/25 |
| Description | Dr David Clancy, Lecturer in Biogerontology, Lancaster University, said: “Diet restriction seems to extend lifespan significantly but is hard to do, and certainly no fun. So Ivimey-Cook et al decided to look at hundreds of datasets across 8 species of vertebrate which examined lifespan effects of diet restriction (DR), the immune suppressant drug rapamycin and the diabetes drug metformin. Both drugs have been extensively tested for lifespan extension. The closest species to humans were rhesus monkeys (4 studies) and the furthest from humans were fish (4 studies). The most common were mice and rats (210 studies). “This well-done study showed DR and rapamycin extending lifespan with significant consistency across studies, in both sexes, DR probably a little greater than rapamycin. However metformin did not. That is a pity for the many people now taking off-label metformin for lifespan extension. Let’s hope it doesn’t have any or many adverse effects. “Rapamycin is used mainly as an immune suppressant in kidney transplant. Oddly it may be slightly toxic to kidneys in humans but has not been tested in non-renal patients, and not over the long term as in these lifespan studies. Early experiments in flies and worms show that it needs the cell process known as autophagy to exert its lifespan extension. This is the process whereby cells ‘clean’ themselves of damaged and misfolded proteins and other damaged biomolecules and cell components and recycle them. Unsurprisingly research is looking for stimulators of autophagy (which DR achieves, and exercise), and is searching for ‘rapalogues’ – molecules similar in action to rapamycin but ideally smaller, less complex molecules with no immune system or other ‘off-target’ effects.” |
| Persons | David Clancy |