The scientist discusses several reasons, including fear of the actual and fictional side effects of rapamycin, everolimus and other clinically-approved drugs, arguing that no real side effects preclude their use as anti-aging drugs today.
They go on to discuss why it is more dangerous not to use anti-aging drugs than to use them and how rapamycin-based drug combinations have already been implemented for potential life extension in humans.
Dr. Mikhail V. Blagosklonny from the Cell Stress Biology Lab, at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, in Buffalo, NY 14263 USA said:
In one short-lived mutant strain of mice, the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin extends maximum life span nearly three-fold."
The overwhelming evidence suggests that rapamycin is a universal anti-aging drug that is, it extends lifespan in all tested models from yeast to mammals, suppresses cell senescence and delays the onset of age-related diseases, which are manifestations of aging.
Although rapamycin may reverse some manifestations of aging, it is more effective at slowing down aging than reversing it.
Therefore, rapamycin will be most effective when administered at the pre-disease, or even pre-pre-disease stages of age-related diseases.
Even if one or a few age-related diseases renders aging unhealthy, other potential diseases are still at pre-disease stages, and anti-aging drugs may delay their development.
In addition to rapamycin/everolimus, the anti-aging formula metformin, aspirin, ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers and PDE5 inhibitors, each of which can prevent or treat more than one age-related disease.
Blagosklonny concluded, "There is no shortage of potential patients who unfortunately already employ self-medication with rapamycin, but there is a shortage of physicians to treat them."
Source:
Journal reference:
Blagosklonny, M.V. (2019) Rapamycin for longevity: opinion article. Aging. doi.org/10.18632/aging.102355.