Popular abortion drug shows surprising potential to extend life

New research from biologists at the University of Southern California (USC) Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences reveals that mifepristone, a drug best known for its use for ending early pregnancies, might also extend lifespan. 

The findings could pave the way for anti-aging treatments.

Mifepristone, which is also used to treat Cushing’s disease and certain cancers, has caught the attention of scientists exploring ways to promote longer, healthier lives. 

Increasing lifespan

In a study involving fruit flies, John Tower, a professor of biological sciences at USC Dornsife, compared the effects of mifepristone to rapamycin, a drug that has demonstrated the ability to increase the lifespan of various animals.

The study, published in the journal Fly, showed that both drugs independently extended the lifespan of fruit flies. 

Interestingly, combining the two drugs does not offer additional benefits and a slightly reduced lifespan, suggesting they act through the same biological pathway.

Researchers focused on mitophagy to understand how mifepristone and rapamycin might extend lifespan. 

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.

First-of-its-kind study

For the first time, the researchers could 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. 

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 must 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.

Mifepristone

Mifepristone is a drug that blocks a hormone called progesterone that is needed for a pregnancy to continue. 

Mifepristone, when used together with another medicine called misoprostol, is used to end a pregnancy through ten weeks gestation.

The FDA first approved Mifeprex (mifepristone) in September 2000 for medical termination of pregnancy through seven weeks gestation, and this was extended to ten weeks gestation in 2016. 

Mifepristone is safe when used as indicated, directed, and consistent with the Mifepristone Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) Program.

Recently, scientists found that the widely available cheap diabetes drug Metformin can also extend life.

The drug has long been known to have effects beyond treating diabetes, leading researchers to study it against conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and aging.

Data from worms, rodents, flies, and humans who have taken the diabetes drug suggest it may have anti-aging effects.