The Study
Effect of Low-Dose Rapamycin on Senescence Markers and Physical Functioning in Older Adults with Coronary Artery Disease: Results of a Pilot Study.
This study is like watching a small group of people take a medicine and seeing what happens, but there's no comparison group to know if the changes were really because of the medicine. We can say some things changed, but we can't say the medicine caused those changes.
Analysis score
Maximum 44 for a cross-sectional study.
Where the score came from
Older people with heart disease took a low dose of a drug called rapamycin for 12 weeks to see if it changed signs of aging in their body.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 531 / 100
Quality score
Snapshots of a population at a single point in time, or descriptions of small groups. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine cause and effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1The body showed some signs of slower aging at the cell level, but this didn’t help the person feel stronger or healthier overall.
- 2The drug lowered one aging marker in blood (IL-6 from 4.4 to 2.6 pg/ml) and another in fat tissue (p16 from 169 to 129 units).
- 3A different marker (MMP-3) went up (from 23.5 to 26 ng/ml).
- 4But they didn’t get less frail.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
The Journal of frailty & aging
Year
2016
Authors
Mandeep Singh, M. Jensen, Amir Lerman, Sudhir S. Kushwaha, C. Rihal, Bernard J. Gersh, A. Behfar, Tamar Tchkonia, Randal Thomas, Ryan J. Lennon, L. Keenan, A. G. Moore, James L Kirkland
Related Content
Claims (5)
Taking rapamycin, even in small doses now and then, might increase the chance of getting serious infections like pneumonia in older people because it can weaken the immune system.
Taking a low dose of a drug called rapamycin every day for three months might have increased a protein in the blood linked to healing and inflammation in older people with heart disease — but we’re not sure what that really means for their health.
Older adults with heart disease who took a low dose of a drug called rapamycin every day for 3 months didn’t get less frail, even though the drug changed some aging-related markers in their bodies.
Older adults with heart disease who took a low dose of a drug called rapamycin every day for 12 weeks saw their inflammation levels go down, which might help slow aging-related damage in the body.
Older guys with heart disease who took a low dose of a drug called rapamycin every day for 12 weeks showed signs that their body fat was aging more slowly.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.