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Randomized trial · measured other health measures

8-week trial of rapamycin in 25 older adults: no clear change in thinking tests

Kraig and colleagues · Experimental gerontology · 2018

Original title: A randomized control trial to establish the feasibility and safety of rapamycin treatment in an older human cohort: Immunological, physical performance, and cognitive effects.

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What the study found

No difference

Red blood cell measures, including hemoglobin and hematocrit, fell on rapamycin. No changes were noted in cognitive, physical performance or self-perceived health measures. Blood sugar and insulin did not change.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
25 people · 25 healthy older adults aged 70 to 95
What was tested
Rapamycin 1 mg a day vs placebo for at least 8 weeks
What it measured
Several kinds of outcomes
Daily amount
1 mg a day
How long
8 weeks
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed.
Journal
Experimental gerontology, 2018
Source
PubMed record 29408453. 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.
  • ✓Compared with a placebo, a dummy treatment.
  • –Small: 25 people. Small trials can miss real effects or find chance ones.
  • –Short: 8 weeks. Longer-term effects are unknown.
  • •Measured several kinds of outcomes.
  • •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

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    2

    2 benefit

  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 two reads differed. The reviewer checked the abstract and kept the first read. 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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