ABSTRACT
eLife is publishing a special issue on aging, geroscience and longevity to mark the rapid progress made in this field over the past decade, both in terms of mechanistic understanding and translational approaches that are poised to have clinical impact on age-related diseases.
Subject(s)
Aging , Geroscience , Humans , LongevityABSTRACT
COVID-19 disproportionately affects older people, with likelihood of severe complications and death mirroring that of other age-associated diseases. Inhibition of the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) has been shown to delay or reverse many age-related phenotypes, including declining immune function. Rapamycin (sirolimus) and rapamycin derivatives are US Food and Drug Administration-approved inhibitors of mTORC1 with broad clinical utility and well established dosing and safety profiles. Based on preclinical and clinical evidence, a strong case can be made for immediate large-scale clinical trials to assess whether rapamycin and other mTORC1 inhibitors can prevent COVID-19 infection in these populations and also to determine whether these drugs can improve outcomes in patients with severe COVID-19.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Humans , MTOR Inhibitors , Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Complex 1 , SARS-CoV-2 , Sirolimus , United StatesABSTRACT
The data on COVID-19 is clear on at least one point: Older adults are most vulnerable to hospitalization, disability and death following infection with the novel coronavirus. Therefore, therapeutically addressing degenerative aging processes as the main risk factors appears promising for tackling the present crisis and is expected to be relevant when tackling future infections, epidemics and pandemics. Therefore, utilizing a geroscience approach, targeting aging processes to prevent multimorbidity, via initiating broad clinical trials of potential geroprotective therapies, is recommended.