Potential therapeutic effects of the mtor inhibitors for preventing ageing and progeria-related disorders.

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway is an highly conserved signal transduction axis involved in many cellular processes such as cell growth, survival, transcription, translation, apoptosis, metabolism, motility and autophagy. Recently, such signaling pathway has come to the attention of the scientific community due to the unexpected finding that inhibition of mTOR by rapamycin, an antibiotic with immunosuppressant and chemotherapeutic properties, extends life-span in diverse animal models. Moreover, rapamycin has been reported to rescue the cellular phenotype in a progeroid syndrome that recapitulates most of the traits of physiological ageing, the Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria (HGPS). The promising perspectives raised by those results warrant a better understanding of mTOR signaling and of potential applications of mTOR inhibitors to counteract ageing-associated diseases and increase longevity. This review is focused on these issues.