What is the clinical evidence to support off-label rapamycin therapy in healthy adults?

Hands JM, Lustgarten MS, Frame LA, Rosen B · 2025 · Aging (Albany NY) · Atlas ID HAN2025

What this study shows

A deliberately cautious review of low-dose rapamycin in healthy adults, and re-models one cohort using the PhenoAge biological-aging clock. Verdict: despite strong animal lifespan data, human evidence does NOT yet prove rapamycin delays aging in healthy people. A valuable counterweight to longevity-community hype - it holds the human evidence to a strict standard rather than over-reading promising signals.

Abstract

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Low dose rapamycin therapy has been proposed as a longevity candidate in healthy aging adults. We present a review of the evidence for low dose rapamycin and rapalog therapies in healthy human adults and model the findings of one cohort study using the PhenoAge model. Despite the preclinical evidence supporting the use of sirolimus to enhance mean and maximal lifespan, the data in humans have yet to establish that rapamycin, or its analogues, is a proven seno-therapeutic that can delay aging in healthy older adults.

Read the full abstract on PubMed →

At a glance

Evidence type	R Review — secondary literature, not a new result Marked R because it is a review or synthesis of existing evidence rather than a new primary result; that is a different form of writing, not a weaker one.
Study type	Narrative Review
Model system	Narrative review + PhenoAge modeling of one cohort
Journal	Aging (Albany NY)
Year	2025
Peer reviewed	Yes
Record last updated	2026-10-01
Source	DOI 10.18632/aging.206300 · PMID 40778880 · Free full text (PMC12422820)

Extracted findings

These fields were extracted from the paper with AI assistance and have not been checked against the source. Read them as a pointer into the paper, not as curated claims; where they disagree with the curated summary above, the curated summary stands.

Intervention	Not applicable (narrative review + PhenoAge modeling)
Target	mTOR
Model	Narrative review (+ modeling of one cohort)
Effect	Reviews the limited human evidence for off-label low-dose rapamycin in healthy adults; benefit not yet established

In the Atlas

Cite this paper

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Hands, J. M., Lustgarten, M. S., Frame, L. A., & Rosen, B. (2025). What is the clinical evidence to support off-label rapamycin therapy in healthy adults?. Aging (Albany NY). https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.206300

@article{HAN2025,
  author       = {Hands, J. M. and Lustgarten, M. S. and Frame, L. A. and Rosen, B.},
  title        = {{What is the clinical evidence to support off-label rapamycin therapy in healthy adults?}},
  journal      = {Aging (Albany NY)},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {10.18632/aging.206300},
  note         = {PMID: 40778880},
}

Cite this Atlas record

The record is the Atlas's own work — the evidence label, the extracted findings and the links. It is cited as part of the dataset, not as the paper.

Barton, O. (2026). Oliver's mTOR Atlas (record HAN2025) [Data set]. https://mtor-atlas.org/study/HAN2025/ · Dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22059963

@misc{atlas_HAN2025,
  author       = {Barton, Oliver},
  title        = {{Oliver's mTOR Atlas}, record HAN2025},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  year         = {2026},
  url          = {https://mtor-atlas.org/study/HAN2025/},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.22059963}
}

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