A common cancer drug may reverse the age of women’s OVARIES and extend their childbearing years
A commonly used cancer drug may be able to reverse women’s ovaries, potentially extending their childbearing years and delaying menopause.
Rapamycin, also known as sirolimus, is a weekly pill that suppresses the immune system and is used to treat cancer and prevent organ rejection after transplants or heart stent surgery. It has been recognized as a geroprotector, or a drug that can slow down or reverse aging.
It has been earmarked as a potential longevity drug in recent years, after promising studies in mice showed it could increase overall longevity.
A 2021 judgement for example, the journal GeroScience examined the effects of rapamycin on mice. Researchers found that rapamycin extended the lifespan of male and female mice in more than 90 percent of cases.
Rapamycin is a once-a-week pill that has been linked to longer life. Researchers at Columbia University are investigating whether it can reverse ovarian aging
“This drug targets the fundamental biology of aging… thus extending health and longevity in animal models,” Dr. Yousin Suh, a professor of genetics at Columbia University, told DailyMail.com. “In the long run, it can help women live healthier and longer lives.”
Dr. Suh and Columbia University researcher Dr. Zev Williams are leading the study, called Validating Benefits of Rapamycin for Reproductive Aging Treatment (VIBRANT), to test whether or not rapamycin may have the same longevity properties on a woman’s ovaries.
Study participants are women who have tried to conceive but have been unable to conceive, either naturally or through fertility procedures such as IVF.
“We are interested in reproductive aging in women, namely ovarian aging, because the ovary is the very first organ to age in the human body,” said Dr Suh.
That aging process is abrupt, Dr. Suh said. By the time a woman is in her 30s, her ovaries are rapidly dwindling. That aging eventually cumulates with menopause, which begins on average at age 51 in the US.
“We have very little understanding of why the ovaries age so quickly compared to other organs,” said Dr Suh.
The goal of the VIBRANT study is to slow down that process.
“Rapamycin is one of the gold standards of geroprotectors, so it was crystal clear to us that the ovary can be targeted by rapamycin and thereby delay aging in the ovary, including menopause and age-related fertility decline,” said Dr. Suh.
Data measured up to 2012 show that the age at which women have their first child is steadily rising
According to the CDC, more and more women are having their first child over the age of 30. The majority of these women have a bachelor’s degree in the East
The National Center for Health Statistics notes a steady increase in the number of women who are more likely to conceive in their 30s and 40s.
While research is still in its infancy, if successful it could be a game changer for women in the US who have children later to prioritize their careers.
The National Center for Health Statistics shows that most women have an average of 1.3 babies.
From 2015-2019, only 56.7 percent of women had a baby before age 49.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, more women have also frozen their eggs. A 2021 study found a 44 percent increase in patients who freeze eggs within 90 days of the first consultation.
Rapamycin may also delay menopause. While most women reach menopause in their 50s, one in 20 women will reach that point by age 45.
The process is preceded by several years of perimenopause, which lasts an average of two to eight years, followed by up to 14 years of postmenopause.
Menopause comes with a host of uncomfortable symptoms ranging from the uncomfortable to the debilitating.
These include menstrual cycle changes, hot flashes, night sweats, weight gain, decreased sex drive, depression, heart attack and stroke.
Women who go through menopause at a younger age are also at greater risk for health problems such as heart disease, osteoporosis, and even dementia.
A studyfound, for example, that women with menopause-related hot flashes and depressive episodes were more likely to have cognitive weaknesses associated with dementia.
Research suggests that menopause accelerates aging, and the sooner a woman goes through it, the faster she ages.
The goal of Rapamycin is to maintain as many healthy eggs as possible.
Unlike egg freezing, which produces too many eggs to store outside the body for later, the drug works to keep those eggs in the body.
This would allow the ovaries to function more like younger, healthier ones. The healthy ovaries control the release of eggs with an enzyme called mTOR, or the target of rapamycin in mammals.
Regulating egg release can safely slow reproductive aging, extending the time a woman is fertile. This means she can have children later in life and delay the onset of menopause.
However, too much mTOR can stop ovulation completely.
At the beginning and end of the project’s three-month period, the researchers will measure the amount of anti-Mullerian hormone each woman has. This is an important indicator of reproductive health. It corresponds to the amount of eggs each woman has in reserve, which is a sign of fertility.
Dr Suh said it’s too early to say if this could hold the key to slowing ovarian ageing. Still, she’s excited to find the answer.
“If I were to leave Earth, I would be very, very happy if I could help people, especially women. That would be worth living for,” she said.