#1

Rapamycin’s ability to boost myelin in the PFC offers a promising avenue for treating depression by potentially addressing the underlying neuroanatomical changes.

Depressive disorder is a psychiatric condition that is characterized by the core symptoms of anhedonia and learned helplessness. Myelination loss was recently found in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of patients with depression and animal models, but the mechanism of this loss is unclear. In our previous study, chronic restraint stress (CRS) mice showed depressive-like symptoms. In this study, we found that myelin was reduced in the PFC of CRS mice. We also observed increased mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) phosphorylation levels in the PFC. Chronic injections of rapamycin, a mTOR complex inhibitor, prevented depressive behavior as shown by the forced swimming test and sucrose preference test. Rapamycin also increased myelination in the PFC of CRS mice. In summary, we found that CRS enhanced mTOR signaling and reduced myelination in the PFC and that rapamycin could prevent it. Our study provides the etiology of reduced myelin in depressive symptoms and suggests that mTOR signaling could be a target for treating depression or improving myelination deficits in depressive disorders.

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#2

Also very promising for MS as a demyelinating disease. Going to read with great attention the article. Thank you for sharing! :slight_smile:

#3

Very interesting article. As I had noted in an earlier post, I always felt that RAPA was doing something good (about one year on it) but never felt anything major. About a month ago I came with a bacterial infection that left me feeling worse that I have felt in more than 20 years. I wasn’t sure of my conditions cause, an initially thought it could be some new supplements/substances I was taking (now it’s obvious it was the infection) but decided to hold off taking my RAPA dose for a month (thinking RAPA is bad for bacterial infections). My condition kept worsening. On Saturday morning feeling really, really shitty I decided the hell with it, I’m going to take my RAPA. So, I took 5mg no GFJ this time and I was amazed that within 2-3 hours all my symptoms (headache, bloating, tiredness, body aches, unmotivated, low energy etc…) just magically cleared and I was 100% my own self again.

I am still in awe how that could even be possible. So from now on I’ll never doubt RAPA benefits.

#4

On the topic of rapamycin and the brain I also found this interesting:

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#5

Sounds like rapamycin should be included in all the gummies currently being sold in many states!

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