Hip
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This Reddit post details a long COVID ME/CFS patient who was bedbound and very ill for 2.5 years, becoming fit enough to play basketball with no PEM repercussions, after 6 weeks of rapamycin (sirolimus) at a dose of 5 mg once a week.
He starting thinking in terms of trying rapamycin on the basis that ME/CFS might be an autoimmune disease. He learnt that it was unlikely ME/CFS could involve B-cell/antibody autoimmunity, because this possibility has been well explored; but ME/CFS might involve T-cell autoimmunity, and to counter this, you can promote regulatory T cells (T-regs).
Rapamycin promotes T-reg expansion and functioning, so this is why he decided to try this drug.
After his success with rapamycin, he realised that the benefits may come from mechanisms other than the T-reg one.
In this comment, he explains why taking 5 mg once a week is better than taking lower doses daily:
Drinking 250 ml of grapefruit juice can increase rapamycin blood levels by 3.5 times, so grapefruit juice allows you to take lower doses of rapamycin and get the same effect, which saves money. This is because grapefruit juice inhibits the liver enzyme CYP3A4 which metabolises rapamycin. Other CYP3A4 inhibitors include grape seed extract and green tea extract, clarithromycin and itraconazole. See this post.
The cheapest I have found rapamycin is from BuyPharma, with 1 mg x 10 costing $19.
He starting thinking in terms of trying rapamycin on the basis that ME/CFS might be an autoimmune disease. He learnt that it was unlikely ME/CFS could involve B-cell/antibody autoimmunity, because this possibility has been well explored; but ME/CFS might involve T-cell autoimmunity, and to counter this, you can promote regulatory T cells (T-regs).
Rapamycin promotes T-reg expansion and functioning, so this is why he decided to try this drug.
After his success with rapamycin, he realised that the benefits may come from mechanisms other than the T-reg one.
In this comment, he explains why taking 5 mg once a week is better than taking lower doses daily:
Drinking 250 ml of grapefruit juice can increase rapamycin blood levels by 3.5 times, so grapefruit juice allows you to take lower doses of rapamycin and get the same effect, which saves money. This is because grapefruit juice inhibits the liver enzyme CYP3A4 which metabolises rapamycin. Other CYP3A4 inhibitors include grape seed extract and green tea extract, clarithromycin and itraconazole. See this post.
The cheapest I have found rapamycin is from BuyPharma, with 1 mg x 10 costing $19.
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