A common cancer drug can reverse the age of women’s ovaries and extend their reproductive years

A commonly used cancer drug can reverse women’s ovaries, potentially extending their childbearing years and delaying menopause.

Rapamycin, also known as sirolimus, is a weekly immunosuppressive pill used to treat cancer and prevent organ rejection after transplant or heart stent surgery. It has been recognized as a geroprotector, or a drug that can slow down or reverse aging.

It has been touted as a potential longevity drug in recent years after promising studies in mice showed it could increase overall lifespan.

For example, a 2021 review in the journal GeroScience examined the effects of rapamycin on mice. Researchers found that rapamycin increased the lifespan of male and female mice more than 90 percent of the time.

“This drug targets the fundamental biology of aging … extending health and longevity in animal models,” said Dr. Yousin Suh, a professor of genetics at Columbia University, told DailyMail.com. “In the long run, it could help women live longer and healthier lives.”

DR. Suh and Columbia University researcher Dr. Zev Williams is leading the study, titled Validating Benefits of Rapamycin for Reproductive Aging Treatment (VIBRANT), to test whether rapamycin can have the same longevity properties on a woman’s ovaries.

Participants in the study are women who have tried to conceive but have been unable to conceive naturally or through fertility methods such as IVF.

“We are interested in reproductive aging in women, specifically ovarian aging because the ovaries are the very first organ in the human body to age,” said Dr. sigh

This aging process is sudden, Dr. sigh When a woman is in her 30s, her ovaries rapidly diminish. This aging eventually accumulates with menopause, which begins on average at age 51 in the United States.

“We have very little understanding of why the ovaries age so quickly compared to other organs,” said Dr. sigh

The aim of the VIBRANT study is to slow down this process.

“Rapamycin is one of the gold standards for geroprotectors, so we knew that rapamycin could target the ovaries and thereby delay ovarian aging, including menopause and age-related fertility decline,” said Dr. wow

Data measured up to 2012 show that the age at which women have their first child is steadily increasing

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 get pregnant in their 30s and 40s.

Although the research is still in its infancy, if successful, it could be a game changer for women in the US who continue to have children in order to prioritize their careers.

The National Center for Health Statistics shows that most women have an average of 1.3 babies.

From 2015 to 2019, only 56.7 percent of women had a child before the age of 49.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, more women have also frozen their eggs. A 2021 study found a 44 percent increase in patients freezing eggs within 90 days of the initial consultation.

Rapamycin can also delay menopause. While most women enter menopause in their 50s, one in 20 women will reach this point by age 45.

The process is preceded by a perimenopause of several years, lasting on average two to eight years, followed by a postmenopause of up to 14 years.

Menopause comes with a multitude of uncomfortable symptoms that range from uncomfortable to debilitating.

These include changes in the menstrual cycle, 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.

For example, one study found that women with menopausal hot flashes and depressive episodes were more likely to have cognitive deficits associated with dementia.

Celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Drew Barrymore and Gwyneth Paltrow have spoken openly about their struggles with menopause

Research suggests that menopause accelerates aging, and the earlier a woman goes through it, the faster she ages.

The goal of rapamycin is to get as many healthy eggs as possible.

Unlike egg freezing, which produces too many eggs to store outside the body later, the drug works to keep those eggs in the body.

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This will make the ovaries function more like younger, healthier. The healthy ovaries control the release of eggs using an enzyme called mTOR, or mammalian target of rapamycin.

Regulating egg release can safely slow reproductive aging and increase 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 altogether.

At the beginning and end of the three-month project period, the researchers measured the amount of anti-Müllerian hormone in each woman. It is an important indicator of reproductive health. This corresponds to the number of eggs each woman has in reserve, which is a sign of fertility.

Dr. Suh said it was too early to say whether this could be the key to slowing ovarian aging. Still, she looks forward to finding the answer.

“If I were to leave the earth, I would be very, very happy if I could help people, especially women. It’s worth living for,” she said.