Collecting Data on People Using Rapamycin Off-Label in the Context of Aging
There are, it is thought, enough people out there using rapamycin in the belief that it will meaningful slow aging to start a survey. The Impetus Grants project funded such a survey, to be conducted by academics already involved in the Dog Aging Project, also focused in part on the effects of rapamycin. As an mTOR inhibitor, rapamycin produces some of the same beneficial effects on metabolism and health as result from the practice of calorie restriction, meaning upregulated cell stress responses, particularly autophagy, and slowed aging - at least in mice, where this has been robustly studies. It remains an open question as to the size of the benefits in humans, but it one was going to spend time and funding on a way to modestly slow the aging process, then rapamycin is a far better choice than metformin, given a survey of the quality of the animal data.
Rapamycin is an mTOR inhibitor isolated from the Rapa Nui bacterium Streptomyces hygroscopicus. It is a well-established immune-modulating drug for use with transplant patients and has shown promising results on healthspan studies in laboratory animals. By collecting and disseminating data on several hundred people already taking low dose rapamycin for many months or years, this project will gather evidence for or against the use of rapamycin to improve health and prevent disease in people. At a minimum, this should largely resolve the current debate around safety of rapamycin use in this context.
Collected data will be analyzed primarily to assess common side effects experienced by patients (severity and frequency) in order to provide a true estimate of actual risk. Changes in medical or dental health from baseline will be assessed for each patient for whom that data is available. A summary of the overall cohort data will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.