The life expectancy of women is significantly higher than that of men. However, women also suffer more often from age-related diseases and adverse drug reactions. “Our long-term goal is to ensure that men live as long as women and also women as healthy as men at the end of their lives. But for that, we need to understand where the differences come from,” says Yu-Xuan Lu, one of the lead authors of the study.
Rapamycin extends lifespan only in female flies
The researchers administered the anti-aging drug rapamycin to male and female fruit flies to study the effect on different sexes. Rapamycin is a cell growth inhibitor and immune regulator that is normally used in the treatment of cancer and following organ transplants. They found that rapamycin extended lifespan and slowed age-related intestinal pathologies in female flies, but not in males.
A healthier life through more autophagy
The researchers observed that rapamycin increased autophagy – the process of removing waste from the cell – in female intestinal cells. However, male intestinal cells already appear to have high basal autophagy activity, which cannot be increased further by rapamycin. Scientists have also been able to see this effect of rapamycin in mice. Female mice showed increased autophagy activity following rapamycin treatment. “Previous studies have shown that females have greater lifespan-extending responses to rapamycin than males in mice, we are now uncovering an underlying mechanism for these differences using flies,” explains Yu-Xuan Lu.
Personalized and gender-specific treatments
“Gender can be a deciding factor for the effectiveness of anti-aging drugs. Understanding sex-specific processes and determining response to therapeutics will improve the development of personalized treatments,” says Linda Partridge, lead author of the study.
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Materials provided by Max Planck Institute for the Biology of Aging. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
