26 Nov Topical Organ Rejection Drug Reduced Skin Aging

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Sell

Christian Sell, PhD
Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Drexel University College of Medicine

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: In terms of background, the drug rapamycin targets a pathway that scientists know is critical for growth and development but is also a key regulator of lifespan in many model organisms such as worms, flies, and mice. This pathway is known as the mTOR pathway. Rapamycin is already in use clinically, it is given to people who have received organ transplants to prevent rejection and is also in trials to treat some forms of cancer, at very high doses.

Many studies in mice have shown that rapamycin delays aging and prevents age-related disorders such as the decline in heart function and cognitive function. Based on this work, there is a strong expectation that these results will translate into humans, but no studies have been done due to concerns regarding potential side effects of rapamycin when the drug is given orally to prevent rejection. Our previous studies have shown that a very low dose of rapamcyin can reduce the aging of human cells and improve cell growth, while the high does used for organ transplant patients actually block cell growth.  We decided to test the impact of low dose rapamycin on aging in the skin because we could treat people safely. Previous studies have shown that the drug does not get into the blood stream when high doses were given topically to people with a rare genetic disorder, so we knew that the low doses used in our study would not get into the bloodstream and would be safe for the patients.

MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?

Response: With this in mind, we treated subjects for 8 months with a low dose of rapamycin that preserves cell growth to see if we can reduce markers of skin aging. To our surprise, the results were better than we expected. We found a significant decrease in markers of cell aging and a significant increase in proteins associated with skin integrity. In addition, the majority of subjects enjoyed a real impact on the clinical signs of aging in their skin. Importantly, as we predicted, no rapamycin got into the bloodstream of subjects in our study.  

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?

 Response: There is a real potential to improve age-related disorders with drugs like rapamycin that target cellular aging. This is very exciting but we have to be very careful to test these interventions in a safe and responsible way. We need to understand when and where we can use these types of intervention while minimizing risks. It is an exciting time in the area of aging-related research but we have allot of work ahead. I would stress that people should not just try to take rapamycin pills. The side effects are real and can be serious. 

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this work?

Response: Obviously, we need to repeat the study with more subjects. Also, we need to identify specific age-related diseases that may respond to rapamycin and carefully evaluate how to use the drug to provide benefit.

Our finding that a low dose of rapamycin is sufficient to improve signs of aging suggests that we could potentially try reducing the dose of the drug to provide benefit.

Disclosures: There is a small start-up company Boinca (pronouced Bo-Inca) that is exploring the potential for the topical application of low dose rapamycin for the treatment of skin aging. Myself and my co-authors,

Drs. Chung and Lawrence will be shareholders in that start-up.

Citation:

Christina Lee Chung, Ibiyonu Lawrence, Melissa Hoffman, Dareen Elgindi, Kumar Nadhan, Manali Potnis, Annie Jin, Catlin Sershon, Rhonda Binnebose, Antonello Lorenzini, Christian Sell. Topical rapamycin reduces markers of senescence and aging in human skin: an exploratory, prospective, randomized trial. GeroScience, 2019; DOI: 10.1007/s11357-019-00113-y

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Last Updated on November 26, 2019 by Marie Benz MD FAAD