Research

Hormonal

Rapamycin extends life span in Drosophila specifically through the TORC1 branch by modulating autophagy and protein translation.

The longevity benefits of rapamycin in flies are driven by its ability to inhibit TORC1, which in turn increases autophagy (cellular cleanup) and reduces protein translation. This suggests that cellular maintenance and reduced growth signaling are key to longevity.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Analysis of the underlying mechanisms revealed that rapamycin increased longevity specifically through the TORC1 branch of the TOR pathway, through alterations to both autophagy and translation.
Ivana Bjedov et al. · Cell Metabolism · 2010

Why this rating

Supported by epistasis experiments using mutants (S6K, 4E-BP, Atg5) that block the effect.

Source

Mechanisms of Life Span Extension by Rapamycin in the Fruit Fly Drosophila melanogaster

Ivana Bjedov et al. · Cell Metabolism · 2010

DOI 10.1016/j.cmet.2009.11.010

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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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