The soil bacteria on Easter Island weren't making rapamycin to slow down aging, but rather

to slow down the growth of its natural enemy, soil fungi, just like fungi make penicillin

to wipe out competing bacteria. Fungi from yeast on up,

like all plants and animals, have mTOR genes. This target of the rapamycin enzyme is the universal

growth regulator of advanced life forms. So, while rapamycin originally drew attention as an

antifungal drug, we soon learned it had

many other effects.

Dozens of published studies have demonstrated that rapamycin, by slowing down mTOR,

extends both the average and maximum lifespans of laboratory mice.

In fact, rapamycin appears to be a universal anti-aging drug, extending the lifespan of all

animals and organisms tested to date, the only known drug to do so.

It can even work when started in midlife.

The original National Institute on Eaging Interventions Testing Program experiment in 2009

was delayed because the researchers were

having difficulty keeping rapamycin stable in the mouse food pelletting process.

It can't just be dissolved in their drinking water because it's fat soluble.

By the time they were up and running, the allotted batch of mice were 600 days old,

which is equivalent to like 60 years of age in humans.

Even though the mice started the drug so late in life, their lifespans were still extended by about 12%,

which could equate to more than an added seven years of human life.

Initially, it was debated whether rapamycin was a true anti-aging intervention or merely a potent

anti-cancer agent, lengthening lifespans by just preventing cancer formation.

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