メディエイゴ

A drug known to suppress(1) the immune system(2), and possibly inhibit(3) cancer(4) and other destructive(5) aging(6) processes, is the new frontrunner(7) in federally(8) supported anti-aging(9)　studies.

In the study, mice(10) fed the drug rapamycin(11), even starting in late middle age(12), had their lifespan(13) extended by 9 to 14 percent. The results appear online(14) and will be published in the journal Nature July 16.

University of Michigan scientist Richard A. Miller, M.D.(15), Ph.D. (16), says the findings are the most robust(17) yet in the ongoing(18) animal experiments at his lab(19) and two others. The study, now in its sixth year, tests agents that have potential to slow aging. The other study sites are the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas, and the Jackson Laboratory(20) in Bar Harbor, Maine.

“While other results have been promising, the rapamycin effect is bigger, and worked even when started in late middle age,” says Miller, a professor of pathology(21) at the U-M Medical School and associate director for research at the U-M Geriatrics(22) Center. Miller is also a research scientist at the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center.

In the study, both male and female mice who were 600 days old were fed the experimental(23) diet. Mice fed a normal diet with rapamycin lived longer than those fed a normal diet without the drug. Rapamycin led to a 14 percent increase in lifespan in female mice, and a 9 percent increase in lifespan for male mice.

The mice were well past middle age (24) when the study started. Rarely does a mouse of this type live longer than 1,200 days.