Rapamycin: Can it slow the aging process?

We all want to stay young and slow the natural aging process. A new drug found in South Pacific soil may eventually be the answer to many older adults' prayers. A study published in the journal Nature reports that rapamycin, a drug used in humans to prevent transplanted organ rejection, extended the lives of mice by up to 14% — even when the mice received the drug late in life. The one glitch in the findings is that rapamycin also suppresses the immune system and that could complicate its development as an anti-aging drug. Researchers are expected to continue studying the drug to see if they can separate the immune suppression from the anti-aging effect. One researcher who worked on the project said it might someday be possible to tweak rapamycin in this way, or to target the other molecules in the pathway instead. His lab is already working on these challenges.