Rapamycin & mTOR
Animal-model evidenceTransient rapamycin treatment can increase lifespan and healthspan in middle-aged mice
Bitto A., Ito T.K., Pineda V.V. et al. · eLife, 2016
- Species
- Mice
- Design
- Preclinical / animal model
- Sample
- Middle-aged (20-month) mice
What it found
A single three-month course of rapamycin in middle age produced a durable lifespan increase — substantially so in females — along with improved healthspan measures, without continuous lifelong dosing.
Why it matters
This is the intellectual basis for intermittent, low-dose protocols rather than daily immunosuppressive dosing. It reframed rapamycin as something you might give in pulses, which is how veterinary protocols are designed.
How much weight this carries
Signals so far come from animal models. We carry these forward cautiously and say so.
This link runs a PubMed search on the paper’s exact title rather than a hard-coded DOI. It always resolves to the real record, and it cannot rot.
More on rapamycin & mtor
- Rapamycin fed late in life extends lifespan in genetically heterogeneous mice
Nature, 2009
- A randomized controlled trial to establish effects of short-term rapamycin treatment in 24 middle-aged companion dogs
GeroScience, 2017
- TRIAD — Test of Rapamycin In Aging Dogs
Dog Aging Project, 2024
- Safety and tolerability of delayed-release rapamycin in cats with subclinical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (RAPACAT)
Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 2023
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