Soon after the COVID-19 pandemic became a worldwide reality in early 2020, Vadim N. Gladyshev, a Harvard biochemist, professor, and expert in antioxidant/redox biology, began analyzing qualities of those more likely to fall victim to the virus. As detailed in a June 2020 Wired article summarizing his findings, the more data he analyzed, the more he believed the viral infection may be better classified as “a disease of aging.”
Gladyshev’s theory was quickly taken up by other scientists across the United States. With elderly people making up a large amount of the virus fatalities, Gladyshev and others looked to well-known drugs Rapamycin and Metformin (typically known for their clinical uses in cancer and diabetes) as possible remedies based on evidence that these drugs can work to slow or reverse the aging process. By slowing or reversing aging, their theory is that Rapamycin and Metformin may be “preventative measures [that] could give the most vulnerable a better chance of fighting off COVID-19.”
As detailed in the article, “most of the evidence that [Rapamycin and Metformin] might be able to reverse some of the hallmarks of aging, and thus make an elderly person more resilient to viral infections, comes from studies either in human cells or rodents. This data suggests that Rapamycin has the potential to revitalise the body’s natural defence mechanisms within the lungs, stimulating cells such as macrophages – which are designed to seek out and remove viruses – to work more efficiently.”
For more information, or to read the full Wired article, click here.
For more information on Metformin, click here.
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Vadim N. Gladyshev is not affiliated with AgelessRx.