Scientists have identified a potential new benefit of a well-known drug: extending lifespan by improving mitophagy, the process that clears damaged mitochondria.
New research from biologists at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences suggests that mifepristone, a drug primarily used to terminate early pregnancies, may also have lifespan-extending properties. These findings could contribute to the development of anti-aging therapies.
Mifepristone, which is also prescribed for Cushing’s disease and certain cancers, has attracted scientific interest for its potential role in promoting longevity. In a study on fruit flies, John Tower, a professor of biological sciences at USC Dornsife, compared its effects to those of rapamycin—another drug known to extend lifespan in various animal species.
Published in the journal Fly, the study found that both drugs independently prolonged the lives of fruit flies. However, when used together, they did not provide additional benefits and slightly reduced lifespan, suggesting they function through the same biological pathway.
How Mifepristone Affects Aging
To understand how mifepristone and rapamycin might extend lifespan, researchers focused on mitophagy. Mitophagy is like a cellular “cleanup” process in which damaged or dysfunctional mitochondria — the cell’s energy producers — are broken down and recycled. Impaired mitophagy has been linked to aging and age-related diseases, while increased mitophagy is believed to be a factor in rapamycin’s life-extending effects.
For the first time, the researchers were able to noninvasively measure mitophagy in fruit flies. They found that mifepristone increased mitophagy to the same extent as rapamycin.
“The noninvasive in vivo mitophagy assay is novel, and our findings suggest that enhancing mitochondrial health could be central to how both drugs extend lifespan,” Tower said.
The fact that mifepristone — a drug already approved for various medical uses — can boost mitophagy points to its potential as an anti-aging treatment, added Tower, whose previous research has shown anti-aging benefits from the drug. Because it is already approved, repurposing mifepristone for anti-aging clinical trials could be faster, potentially accelerating the development of new longevity therapies.
Future research will need to determine whether the effects observed in fruit flies can be replicated in humans, said Tower. If so, mifepristone might provide a relatively accessible and safe way to reduce age-related cellular decline, paving the way for other therapies that enhance mitochondrial health to support longevity.
Reference: “Mifepristone and rapamycin have non-additive benefits for life span in mated female Drosophila” by Gary N. Landis, Britta Baybutt, Shoham Das, Yijie Fan, Kate Olsen, Karissa Yan and John Tower, 23 October 2024, Fly.
DOI: 10.1080/19336934.2024.2419151
The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging.
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18 Comments
We do not need to extend our lifespan, we need to be healthy the entire 100 years or so that we should naturally have, that is where the research should focus.
I agree
I agree. Although average lifespans are around 80 something in wealthy countries.
However, these drugs also do that typically. The same processes that create suffering can also shorten life.
humans have never had 100 year lifespan, never made for it, where’s your proof of your fantasy. long life?
there is no evidence that humans are supposed to live to 100yrs.
Your religious beliefs on aging…more fantasy, have no bearing here.
The fastest growing demographic is centenarians. Every generation, people live 6–7 years longer. In Monaco, people are dying at an average of 86.37 years. 26% of adults smoke in Monaco, which is average for Europe. Non-smokers live on average 10 years longer. So with strict no smoking, people in Monaco would live to 88.97 years. We also know people are eating a far from optimal diet…everywhere. A UK biobank study showed that just adjusting the relative amounts of food consumed in 13 categories, men in the UK could live 10.8 years longer and women could live 10.4 years longer. They currently live 79.36 and 83.21. So, if they complied, that is 90.16 and 93.61. Smoking cessation probably gains a year or two to the average. Drinking similar. Get everyone exercising 3 days a week would gain 3.44 years (according to AI). So, roughly 95.5 for men, and 99-100 for women is quite possible without anything crazy. But we can do better by reducing Advanced glycation end-products, and oxysterols by further modifying diet…likely gaining another 10%. And by refining what kind of exercise is included in “exercise,” we can go further. Zone 2 cardio, 40 minutes 4 times a week, 10 minutes of HIIT a week, and 3 half-hour sessions of resistance training a week would boost life expectancy further. Adding some supplements like taurine, glycine, NAC, TMG, collagen peptides, creatine, mushroom extract, artichoke extract, hibiscus tea, and green tea, there is every reason to think we could live even longer. Hormone replacement looks good when done within reason. Then there is the serious stuff like stem cell therapy, plasmapheresis/plasma donation, genetic modification, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, telomere extension, senolytics, drugs…
Other things can help too like reduced stress, clean air and water, affordable homes, good friends, accomplishments, memories of travels, a cause.
No, a 100-year average is not just pie in the sky.
Heathy mitochondria does work toward increased healthspan. However, I disagree. I’d rather live much longer, as long as there are things to enjoy. If a robot has to make me meals, whatever. It is not my goal to just be hit by a bus at 100 while jogging.
Interesting, now off label use is cool again.
But when it had been discovered that ivermectin was great for combating covid, all the media were laughing it off as a “horse dewormer”.
you drank the cheetos’s kool aid, ivermectin was a maga lie, what’s next bleach in the veins?
A response only a true idiot would give.
I don’t care about the US politics, I care about science and results. Ivermectin’s antiviral properties have been known for decades, and it has long been successfully used in such capacity in Africa. It’s not a lie, it’s well documented.
Btw, I hate MAGA, regular Reps and most of the Democrats alike.
The science says differently. c19early.org clearly shows it was effective. 105 studies later and 220,423 patients. 60% improvement. Remdesivir, however, was ineffective to slightly harmful.
Proxalutamide appears to have been the most effective that was used in a reasonably large number of people. 78% improvement.
I am neither a Conservative nor a Liberal. Positions closer to Taft and Eisenhower, but with a rational level of environmental, and basic needs. Trust busting, clean high quality food, balanced budgets, much lower military spending, free trade, automated manufacturing, farming and mining. Future looking transport. Genuine meritocracy.
I did not vote for Trump or Harris. Though, Trump did float one of my ideas, only for it to be shot down by his own party ideologists. And if he had stuck by it, I might have voted for him, not that it would have made a difference.
One dumb floated idea would win your vote?
Presidents don’t run things because they don’t make the laws. It may not seem that way right now with Tariff Man and DOGE doing weird and/or illegal things at a breakneck pace, I admit, but keep watching, political gravity will re-assert itself.
My point is in a majoritarian system, coalitions make policy, not individuals. The choice that would make a difference is between parties.
Fasting also clears out your body at a cellular level and there’s no risk of drug reactions.
proof…none as usual, that has never been proven, if so point me to the medical article with peer reviewss that show the proven repeatable experiments.
This Tree guy has hardcore political bias clouding all thoughts to the point of being clearly anti science. Why even bother getting out of bed every day? Just to rage and shout into the void?
This Jason guy has hardcore political bias clouding all thoughts to the point of being clearly anti science. Why even bother getting out of bed every day? Just to rage and shout into the void?
A long healthy life has become a rather quaint idea. The pervasive accumulation of nano-particles of plastic in our brains and bodies portends a much different future for mankind.
I’m 83 so my heart goes out everyone who is younger. My generation got the full benefit of Post WW2’s economy in America.
Lead was the biggest problem (damages impulse control). But NIMBYism and some forms of environmentalism made housing expensive. Unions choked progress in infrastructure, even maintenance of what we had. And ironically, making loans easier to get drove up prices for homes, so both parents have to work 40+ years to pay off a home, now.
Nixon revoking Eisenhower’s limit on oil imports, was profoundly harmful, leading to the destruction of the dollar, the inflation of materials like copper, and wood, and trade problems thereafter. Nixon killing molten salt reactors was also a bad move. As was, choosing the Space Shuttle over the other options, stagnating space tech for decades. There are plenty of bad moves by both sides, but somehow Nixon did the biggest damage. Johnson blew a lot of money and did not get much for it. So did Obama and Biden. Clinton did a decent job, especially in his second term. Kennedy foolishly promised Mach 3 public transport. He needed to ask if that was feasible with aluminum, first. The SST became a fail because of that. Similarly, Reagan’s SDI needed to have been run across some good engineers. We spent a ton and got nothing. I am all for big projects, but there should be a sound reason to think we can do them. The Human Genome project was a good one.
Microplastics is exaggerated, I think. But that is not to say that we should not reduce exposure. I think we should use Gorilla glass to make many kinds of containers. That is thin, strong glass that can flex and resist shattering. Titanium also should be used for cans, lids and such. Titanium is not rare. It just takes a lot of energy to reduce to a metal. I am optimistic about new advanced geothermal, and personal automated eVTOLs. To some extent, AI and robotics, as well.
Reduction in smoking saved a lot of lives, so there is that. And catalytic converters cleared the skies. No polio in the US is good.
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) stimulates mitochondrial growth and recycling naturally, and even in older people. It is probably the least fun form of exercise, but it works.