This promising anti-aging drugs just failed its human test

One of the most studied lifespan-extending drugs in animals has just failed its test on humans in a 13-week clinical trial co-funded by DeSci community VitaDAO. 

The trial led by Dr. Brad Stanfield, a General Practitioner based in Auckland, New Zealand, sought to know how the so-called drug “rapamycin,” combined with exercise, fares in older adults. “Rapamycin didn’t help. Instead, it may have made things worse,” said Dr. Stanfield. 

Up to 40 sedentary people aged 65-85 were studied in the trial. Once a week, half received 6 mg rapamycin (sirolimus), while the other group got placebo pills, which are basically identical-looking inactive drugs that serve to contrast the effects of real medications.

Placebo participants improved more than rapamycin’s group

All the participants underwent the same exercise programs. The idea was to use exercise to activate mTOR, which signals the muscles to build protein and get stronger, and then use rapamycin to shift the body into autophagy, which has been found to promote long-term health in animal studies. 

“Alternate the two, and you get the best of both worlds. At least, that was the theory,” said Dr. Stanfield. 

Those who got placebos fared much better. They could walk a longer distance, have better strength, and also gained ~3.4 more chair-stand reps than the rapamycin group.

Although both groups saw an equal rate of people (85% each) reporting side effects, Dr. Stanfield said the rapamycin group saw a higher number of events (99 vs 63), to the extent one participant was hospitalized with pneumonia after receiving a single rapamycin dose.

What went wrong in the rapamycin clinical test?

For context, a PubMed Central report notes that a three-month rapamycin treatment raises the life expectancy of rodents by up to 60%. So, the efficacy of the drug is not in question, per se. “Leading theory is a pharmacokinetic problem,” Dr. Stanfield said. 

Pharmacokinetics is essentially the study of how long a drug stays around in the body. In this case, rapamycin has a half-life of approximately 62 hours, which means that it interferes with training sessions and the muscle-building process. 

“Even dosing it the day after exercise, active drug levels persisted into the next training sessions, partially blocking mTOR when muscles needed it most,” Dr. Stanfield explained. 

He went on to conclude that “exercise remains the single best intervention for preserving function in older adults.”

Crypto community takes part in anti-aging research

Longevity research is increasingly becoming a big part of DeSci. The 13-week trial was co-funded by a decentralized autonomous community, VitaDAO, which has been funding related studies since 2021, as opposed to traditional financing, which is said to exacerbate the “valley of death” between discovery and the clinic.

Crypto founders are not left out. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, has been donating directly to labs and organizations focused on longevity. 

Armstrong is also the co-founder of ResearchHub and NewLimit, a biotech company using epigenetic reprogramming to fight aging, which he believes is the root cause of most major diseases. 

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