摘要：In the recent paper of Popovich et al. published in Cancer Biology and Therapy [1], positive effects of low doses of rapamycin on survival of caner-prone HER- 2/neu mice have been reported. Inhibitors of the mTOR signaling pathway are already widely employed for anticancer therapy in humans. At the same time, over several last years a substantial body of evidence suggesting an anti-aging effect of at least one mTOR inhibitor, rapamycin, was accumulated. For example, rapamycin delayed death without changing the distribution of presumptive causes of death in genetically heterogeneous mice [2] and extended lifespan of cancer-prone mice, such as transgenic HER- 2/neu mice [3] . Thus, a question was raised whether lifespan extension by rapamycin is a consequence of the anti-cancer effect of rapamycin (such as suppression of tumor initiation or slowing down tumor progression) or a direct result of its anti-aging properties (or both). Several studies supported effectiveness of rapamycin in delaying of aging independently from its anti-cancer activities. For example, Wilkinson et al.
