Abstract
Manipulation of the mTOR network, a cellular network that responds to food availability and stress, differentially affects the sexes. For instance, chronic treatment with the drug, rapamycin, an mTOR inhibitor, has larger beneficial effects in female compared to male mice. Additionally, when one key component of the mTOR network, S6K1, is genetically inactivated, female life- and health-span are enhanced, but males are unaffected. This latter genetic effect is particularly interesting because while sex differences in drug processing might underlie this sex difference, a gene when inactivated necessarily is inactivated in both sexes. My laboratory has been studying the impact of mTOR activity on health and longevity and we have discovered plausible mechanisms for these sex differences. Our work suggests that successful interventions for delaying or retarding aging may differ between the sexes.