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Longevity supplements › Rapamycin and Aging › Studies

Randomized trial · measured lab tests or safety

Trial in older volunteers: RAD001, a rapamycin-like drug, raised flu shot response about 20%

Mannick and colleagues · Science translational medicine · 2014

Original title: mTOR inhibition improves immune function in the elderly.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

Points to benefit

RAD001 raised the response to the flu vaccine by about 20% at doses that were relatively well tolerated. It also lowered the share of T cells with the PD-1 marker.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
Older volunteers who got a flu shot
What was tested
RAD001, an mTOR blocker like rapamycin, at doses that were fairly well tolerated, then a flu shot. Comparison group, doses and length not given in abstract.
What it measured
Lab tests or markers
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed.
Journal
Science translational medicine, 2014
Source
PubMed record 25540326. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • •The abstract does not say how many people took part.
  • –Measured lab tests or markers, which stand in for aging and age-related decline. A better marker does not always mean better health.
  • •The PubMed record has no conflict-of-interest statement.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: aging and age-related decline

    3

    1 benefit, 1 mixed, 1 no difference

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    2

    2 no difference

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    2

    2 benefit

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  4. Population studies

    1

    1 no direction

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  6. Animals

    2

    2 benefit

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does rapamycin slow aging in people?”

Not shown in people.

Confidence: very low. Based on 16 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Few other papers sit on the same step, so there is little to compare it with.

Other papers on the same step

See all 16 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The reviewer corrected 1 field after reading the abstract. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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