The gerotherapeutic drugs rapamycin, acarbose, and phenylbutyrate extend lifespan and enhance healthy aging in house crickets

The house cricket (Acheta domesticus) is a promising geroscience model due to its short lifespan, age-associated functional decline, and responsiveness to geroprotective drugs. Continuous rapamycin, acarbose, and phenylbutyrate extends lifespan, but short-term effects remain unknown. We tested 274 sex-matched crickets given each drug for two weeks starting at 8-weeks (mid-age), with testing at 10-weeks (older adult) for olfactory discrimination, exploration, and treadmill performance.

Locomotor gaits were identified by K-means clustering (silhouette > 0.5) and survival by Kaplan–Meier analysis. Olfactory discrimination was preserved in all medicated males and rapamycin-treated females versus controls (d’s = 1.38–1.61, P’s