as anti-aging therapeutics

Rapamycin, an inhibitor of mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), has the strongest experimental support to date as a potential anti-aging therapeutic in mammals. Unlike many other compounds that have been claimed to influence longevity, rapamycin has been repeatedly tested in long-lived, genetically heterogeneous mice, in which it extends both mean and maximum life spans. However, the mechanism that accounts for these effects is far from clear, and a growing list of side effects make it doubtful that rapamycin would ultimately be beneficial in humans. This Review discusses the prospects for developing newer, safer anti-aging therapies based on analogs of rapamycin (termed rapalogs) or other approaches targeting mTOR signaling. A brief history of rapamycin and mechanistic target of rapamycin Rapamycin was discovered in the soil of Easter Island as a com-pound produced by Streptomyces hygroscopicus that was capable of inhibiting the proliferation of the yeast Candida albicans but did not affect the growth of bacteria (1). In mammals, rapamycin was found to inhibit the immune response and was subsequently adopted as a standard therapy to prevent graft rejection in transplant recipient