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Longevity supplements › Rapamycin and Aging › Studies

Randomized trial · measured the question itself

6-week trial in 264 older adults: low-dose mTOR-blocker mix lowered infections for a year

Mannick and colleagues · Science translational medicine · 2018

Original title: TORC1 inhibition enhances immune function and reduces infections in the elderly.

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What the study found

Points to benefit

Reported infections fell for a year after the study drug started (P = 0.001). Flu vaccine response and antiviral gene activity also improved.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
264 people · 264 older adults
What was tested
A low-dose mix of two mTOR blockers, RAD001 and BEZ235, vs placebo for 6 weeks. Infections were tracked for a year.
What it measured
The question itself: aging and age-related decline
How long
6 weeks
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed.
Journal
Science translational medicine, 2018
Source
PubMed record 29997249. 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.
  • •Medium size: 264 people.
  • –Short: 6 weeks. Longer-term effects are unknown.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: aging and age-related decline.
  • •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

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    2

    2 no difference

  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

Of the other 2 papers on the same step: 1 mixed, 1 no difference. This one found benefit.

  • Quoted in “What we found”: A 6-week mix of two mTOR blockers cut reported infections in 264 older adults; a phase 3 trial of 1024 using one alone found no drop (26% vs 25%).
  • Part of the finding “Infection results in older adults disagree”.
  • Marked as a key paper in the research timeline: Two mTOR blockers cut infections in older adults.
  • Open item for a person: Mannick 2018 and Mannick 2021 test the same drug program (BEZ235 renamed RTB101); confirm they are separate trials with no shared participants.
  • Open item for a person: No COI statement in PubMed for Mannick 2014, Mannick 2018, Kraig 2018 and Chung 2019; check full texts for company ties.

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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