MTOR and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: mTOR and its downstream target tuberose sclerosis 2 show increased expression in airway epithelial cells from patients with COPD and are induced by cigarette smoke Unfortunately, rapamycin has several adverse effects related to immunosuppression and abnormal lipid metabolism, some of which are related to its inhibition of mTORC2 and this has led to the development of less toxic analogues called rapalogs, such as everolimus and temsirolimus.