I don't believe it!

[Peikko 1,575]

SCIENTISTS say they have discovered a wonder drug that could help people live up to ten years longer.

Rapamycin is a bacterial product found in soil samples on remote Easter Island in the South Pacific.

It works by inhibiting a protein called TOR that plays a key role in cell growth.

Rapamycin is widely used to stop transplant patients rejecting their new organs.

Now tests on 600-day-old mice - equivalent to 60-year-old humans - have shown it also extends life expectancy by up to 14 per cent.

Dr David Harrison, of the Jackson Laboratory in Maine. USA, who carried out the research, said: "Rapamycin may extend lifespan by postponing death from cancer, by retarding mechanisms of ageing or both.

"It has implications for treatment and prevention of age-related diseases."

Oxford University researcher Dr Lynne Cox said: "This is very exciting. Whether it's sensible to increase lifespan is another matter - perhaps increasing health span might be a better goal."

But Dr Matt Kaeberlein and Dr Brian Kennedy, of Washington University in Seattle, said healthy people should not take rapamycin to slow ageing because it cuts immunity to disease.

Isolated Easter Island is famous for its hundreds of huge carved stone statues.

Link

Edited July 9, 2009 by Madame Cleo

[HAL 9000 96]

Technnically it activates mTOR.

TOR = Target of Rapamycin. How original.

And yes... it really does nasty things to immune cells.

[HAL 9000 96]

Just to add...

mTOR pathway activation is also seen in caloric restriction experiments that are showing longer life expectancy results for the experimental animals involved.

So... instead of taking a pill that may have other side effects... try not stuffing your face with fatty foods.

[Amby 490]

HAL kills another thread by using big words

Just to add...

mTOR pathway activation is also seen in caloric restriction experiments that are showing longer life expectancy results for the experimental animals involved.

So... instead of taking a pill that may have other side effects... try not stuffing your face with fatty foods.

I find that Washington University study really interesting. It's been going on for soooo long.

[HAL 9000 96]

Sorry

The topic's come up in lab meetings though.

And yeah its the WashU group where Gordon's at. We hosted him for a big lecture here last year. Really neat guy to talk to about gut bugs.

[caybee 21]

Yeah, think I'll go the sensible diet route instead. I have a killer immune system, and I wanna keep it that way. But for someone who's prone to cancer and other life-threatening diseases, it does sound intriguing.

[William33 110]

Everyone seems to forget the inherent (hereditary) predisposition to heart disease, cancer and other killers. These life "enhancement" products will not help at all.

We will all die for one reason or another, but heredity plays the majority role. This concept excludes accidents and so forth.

I hope we all live long prosperous lives!!!

[scandal 951]

Everyone seems to forget the inherent (hereditary) predisposition to heart disease, cancer and other killers. These life "enhancement" products will not help at all.

We will all die for one reason or another, but heredity plays the majority role. This concept excludes accidents and so forth.

I hope we all live long prosperous lives!!!

Yeah, I hope I die before I get old (talkin bout my generation)

Yeah, I hope I die before I get old (talkin bout my generation)

[HAL 9000 96]

Everyone seems to forget the inherent (hereditary) predisposition to heart disease, cancer and other killers. These life "enhancement" products will not help at all.

We will all die for one reason or another, but heredity plays the majority role. This concept excludes accidents and so forth.

I hope we all live long prosperous lives!!!

I too hope this upon all of us.

mTOR though, is on pretty much every single cell type, where it promotes cell survival and damage repair. Its demise has been linked to many different kinds of degenerative diseases (mostly as a consequence, not a cause) and its overuse may have a role in keeping some kinds of cancer cells going. Hence my reservations in our self-gratifying society looking for a quick fix in pharmacology once again.

[scandal 951]

Hence my reservations in our self-gratifying society looking for a quick fix in pharmacology once again.

Mother needs something today to calm her down

And though she's not really ill

There's a little yellow pill

She goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper

[HAL 9000 96]

Starting out with Mother instead of with the preceding line makes Brother Scandal have a last name: Bates.