Rapamycin News and Research

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Rapamycin is a drug used to prevent the rejection of organ and bone marrow transplants by the body. Rapamycin is an antibiotic that blocks a protein involved in cell division and inhibits the growth and function of certain T cells of the immune system involved in the body's rejection of foreign tissues and organs. It is a type of immunosuppressant and a type of serine/threonine kinase inhibitor. Rapamycin is now called sirolimus.

Warning over sirolimus in HCV-positive liver transplantation

Sirolimus, whether given at the time of liver transplantation or after, is associated with poorer outcomes in patients with hepatitis C virus infection compared with those who do not take the immunosuppressant, shows a US study.

10 Sep 2012

Mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors can prevent radiation-induced tissue damage

Radiation therapy is one of the most widely used cancer treatments, but it often damages normal tissue and can lead to debilitating conditions. A class of drugs known as mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors can prevent radiation-induced tissue damage in mice by protecting normal stem cells that are crucial for tissue repair, according to a preclinical study published by Cell Press in the September issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.

7 Sep 2012

EC grants marketing authorization for Pfizer’s INLYTA to treat renal cell carcinoma

Pfizer Inc. announced today that the European Commission (EC) has granted marketing authorization for INLYTA (axitinib) for the treatment of adult patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), a type of kidney cancer, after failure of prior treatment with sunitinib or a cytokine.

4 Sep 2012

Combination therapy does not change safety and efficacy relationship of TORISEL for advanced RCC

Pfizer Inc. announced that the Phase 3 INTORACT trial (B1771006), evaluating the combination of bevacizumab plus TORISEL (temsirolimus) compared with bevacizumab plus interferon-alfa-2a (IFN-α-2a) in the first-line treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) across risk groups, did not meet its primary endpoint of superiority in extending progression free survival (PFS) in the study population.

12 Aug 2012

Cardionovum to introduce PROLIMUS Biograde system in Europe

Cardionovum GmbH announced today that it expects to launch in Europe in Q4 2012 a next-generation Sirolimus-eluting coronary stent system—PROLIMUS Biograde—which is designed to optimize long-term patient results. Unlike many state-of-the-art DES that are currently being marketed, PROLIMUS Biograde provides multiple pro-healing product features to promote early re-endothelialization.

9 Aug 2012

Potential new drug to treat common inherited kidney disease

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have demonstrated in the laboratory that a new drug is effective in treating a very common kidney disease -- although it will be a few years before it becomes available for clinical testing. The findings resulted from a collaboration between UCSB and a biotech firm based in Indiana. The study is published in this week's Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

3 Aug 2012

Rapamycin improves function and extends survival in mice with DCM and rare muscular dystrophies

Rapamycin, an immunosuppressant drug used in a variety of disease indications and under study in aging research labs around the world, improved function and extended survival in mice suffering from a genetic mutation which leads to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and rare muscular dystrophies in humans.

26 Jul 2012

Promising path to Parkinson’s disease treatment

Using adult stem cells, Johns Hopkins researchers and a consortium of colleagues nationwide say they have generated the type of human neuron specifically damaged by Parkinson’s disease (PD) and used various drugs to stop the damage.

17 Jul 2012

Study shows cells from different Parkinson’s patients have unique drug responses

Researchers have taken a step toward personalized medicine for Parkinson's disease, by investigating signs of the disease in patient-derived cells and testing how the cells respond to drug treatments.

5 Jul 2012

Deleting a single gene results in autism-like behavior

Deleting a single gene in the cerebellum of mice can cause key autistic-like symptoms, researchers have found. They also discovered that rapamycin, a commonly used immunosuppressant drug, prevented these symptoms.

2 Jul 2012

Rapamycin enhances learning and memory in young mice

Cognitive skills such as learning and memory diminish with age in everyone, and the drop-off is steepest in Alzheimer's disease. Texas scientists seeking a way to prevent this decline reported exciting results this week with a drug that has Polynesian roots.

30 Jun 2012

Pfizer fails to meet primary endpoint in TORISEL Phase 3 study for advanced RCC

Pfizer Inc announced that the Phase 3 INTORSECT (B1771003) study, evaluating TORISEL(temsirolimus) in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) whose disease had progressed on or after SUTENT (sunitinib malate) therapy, did not meet the primary endpoint of prolonging progression free survival (PFS) when compared to sorafenib.

16 May 2012

Svelte completes enrollment in DIRECT drug-eluting stent study

Svelte Medical Systems today announced completion of enrollment in the DIRECT (Direct Implantation of Rapamycin-eluting stent with bio-Eroding Carrier Technology) study conducted at four investigational sites in New Zealand.

15 May 2012

Combination of two mTOR inhibitors stops growth of hepatocellular carcinoma

The combination of two inhibitors of protein mTOR stops the growth of primary liver cancer and destroys tumour cells, according to a study by researchers of the Group of Metabolism and Cancer at Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute.

3 May 2012

Rapamycin could help prevent autism in newborns with seizures

Early-life seizures are known to be associated with autism, and studies indicate that about 40 percent of patients with autism also have epilepsy. A study from Boston Children's Hospital finds a reason for the link, and suggests that an existing drug, already shown to be safe in children, could help prevent autism from developing in newborns who have seizures.

3 May 2012

Autophagy potential target for new CF treatments

Scientists have found why a certain type of bacteria, harmless in healthy people, is so deadly to patients with cystic fibrosis.

23 Apr 2012

Scientists discover why rapamycin causes diabetic-like symptoms in patients

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered why diabetic-like symptoms develop in some patients given rapamycin, an immune-suppressant drug that also has shown anti-cancer activity and may even slow ageing.

4 Apr 2012

Researchers figure out how rapamycin causes diabetes

The drug known as rapamycin is widely used by cancer and transplant patients, and there are hints that it might even help us put off old age and live longer. But, it also comes with a downside: rapamycin leads to diabetes in as many as 15 percent of the people who take it.

4 Apr 2012

Combination of cixutumumab and temsirolimus shrinks tumors in patients with Ewing's sarcoma

A pair of targeted therapies shrank tumors in some patients with treatment-resistant Ewing's sarcoma or desmoplastic small-round-cell tumors, according to research led by investigators from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012.

2 Apr 2012

Disrupting mTORC1 protein complex extends lifespan

One of the secrets to a longer, healthier life is simply to eat less. When subjected to calorie restriction (CR), typically defined as a 20-40% reduction in caloric intake with corresponding maintenance of proper nutrition, animals in labs not only live longer, but also have improved insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance, both of which decline during aging.

30 Mar 2012