Rapamycin and Female Lifespan

EurekaAlert drew my attention to this study on the impact rapamycin has on the lifespan of female (but not male) fruit flies.  This is very relevant to my forthcoming piece on longevity science and women's health and wellbeing.  And brings to the fore a host of other ideas I will be exploring in the years to come.  Just when I think I have written everything I could possibly cover on the fascinating science of longevity a host of novel issues and empirical insights compel me to explore the issues again!

A sample from the news item:

The life expectancy of women is significantly higher than that of men. However, women also suffer more often from age-related diseases and adverse drug reactions. “Our long-term goal is to make men live as long as women and also women as healthy as men in late life. But for that, we need to understand where the differences come from”, explains Yu-Xuan Lu, one of the leading authors of the study.

The researchers gave the anti-ageing drug rapamycin to male and female fruit flies to study the effect on the different sexes. Rapamycin is a cell growth inhibitor and immune regulator that is normally used in cancer therapy and after organ transplantations. They found that rapamycin extended the lifespan and slowed age-related intestinal pathologies in female flies but not in males.

Cheers, 

Colin