Can Rapamycin Be The New Super Drug?
Rapamycin May Cure Everything From Pancreatic Cancer to Epilepsy
Aug 10, 2009
Rapamycin, also known as Sirolimus, was first discovered in a soil sample on Easter Island back in the 1970s. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved it in 1999 to use in patients having kidney transplants, as it is powerful in preventing organ rejection, but lately Rapamycin has been found to have other benefits as well, potentially as a new super drug.
Rapamycin and Pancreatic Cancer
Rapamycin is being used extensively in clinical pancreatic cancer trials as well as skin cancer trials and breast cancer trials. cancer. Cancer researchers noticed that the drug disrupted a biochemical pathway involved in the development of the new blood vessels that promote the growth of tumors.
In a 2009 study by the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, researchers found that Rapamycin, when used in conjunction with another experimental cancer drug called Panobinostat, destroys up to 65 percent of cultured pancreatic tumor cells. This study is very encouraging because the three cell lines used in the study were resistant to chemotherapy, and typically pancreatic tumors are as well. These drugs are currently available as a cancer treatment for patients.
Rapamycin May Extend Human Lifespan
In July 2009, a study by the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio showed that Rapamycin extended the expected lifespan of middle-aged mice by 28 to 38 percent. The Rapamycin was not given to young mice but rather to mice that were 600 days old, an age equivalent to 60 years old in humans. The researchers feel that Rapamycin may extend a person’s lifespan by postponing death from cancer, by retarding mechanisms of aging, or both.
Rapamycin Can Improve the Effectiveness of Vaccines
Scientists at the Emory Vaccine Center in Atlanta, Georgia have discovered the Rapamycin has an unusual effect on cells responsible for immune memory. In experiments conducted in both mice and monkeys, Rapamycin was found to stimulate the formation of memory CD8 T cells, which enable the immune system to respond faster and stronger to infections, especially when encountering an infection for a second time. The finding means that doctors might be able to use Rapamycin to boost the effectiveness of vaccines. This is particularly helpful for the improvement of HIV vaccines and hepatitis vaccines.
Rapamycin May Prevent Childhood Epilepsy
Rapamycin is being shown by researchers to prevent epilepsy caused by both brain injuries as well as by genetics. Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri found that Rapamycin blocks brain changes believed to cause seizures in rats. In another study in 2008, the same group showed that Rapamycin prevents brain changes in mice triggered by one of the most common genetic causes of epilepsy, tuberous sclerosis (TS), also known as Bourneville disease.
Whether Rapamycin proves to be a powerful cancer drug to its benefits in improving the effectiveness of vaccines, further research will tell if Rapamycin has additional uses in the medical world.
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