Field Focus: Progress in RNA Interference Research
Scientists first noticed what would later prove to be RNA interference when puzzling over an unexpected loss of color in petunia petals. Subsequent studies in roundworms revealed that double-stranded RNA can inactivate specific genes. Credit: Alisa Z. Machalek.
In less than two decades, RNA interference (RNAi)—a natural process cells use to inactivate, or silence, specific genes—has progressed from a fundamental finding to a powerful research tool and a potential therapeutic approach. To check in on this fast-moving field, I spoke to geneticists Craig Mello of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Michae...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - August 20, 2015 Category: Research Authors: mchattiezs Tags: Genetics Cellular Processes Field Focus Genes Nobel Prize RNA Source Type: blogs
The Struggle to Find Truth from a Position of Ignorance
Today I stumbled over a popular press article on the topic of longevity science, in which a fair amount of attention is given to Aubrey de Grey and the SENS Research Foundation vision for rejuvenation biotechnology. Like most such articles it is a view from an individual who, though a scientist himself, stands far outside the field of aging research - just like much of the world he is looking in with limited knowledge, trying to make sense of it all, in search of truth from a position of ignorance.
This struggle, the search for truth in a field in which you will never personally know enough to verify any significant detai...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 30, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Of Interest Source Type: blogs
Transthyretin Amyloidosis is More Prevalent than Thought
Evidence suggests that transthyretin (TTR) amyloidosis, also known as senile systemic amyloidosis, is the condition that kills the oldest people, those who have survived every other aspect of aging to reach ages of 110 and greater. Here, I'll note a review paper in which the authors point out that TTR amyloidosis in aging is very likely much more prevalent than this: not a condition only seen in the oldest old, but rather also the cause of a small but sizable fraction of some varieties of heart failure across the entire elderly population. It has been misdiagnosed due to lack of adequate testing for the condition, and thus...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 28, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Protein Aggregation as a Protective Mechanism
One of the distinguishing features of old tissues is the presence of solid protein aggregrates. In some cases these are clearly linked to the pathology of specific diseases, such as Alzheimer's or forms of amyloidosis. For others no clear association with age-related dysfunction has yet been found. It seems prudent to develop means to remove these aggregates regardless, and this is one of the pillars of the SENS approach to rejuvenation treatments. In this paper, researchers propose that not all aggregates are equal, and some are the result of protective mechanisms that sequester an excess of proteins created through age-r...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 8, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Bone scintigraphy in suspected HCM – Cardiology MCQ
Bone scintigraphy with 99mTc-DPD is useful in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) to exclude:
a) HCM due to sarcomere protein mutations
b) Fabry disease
c) Danon disease
d) TTR amyloidosis
Correct answer: d) TTR amyloidosis
Transthyretin (TTR), the precursor protein in senile systemic amyloidosis and familial TTR-related amyloidosis is a tetrameric plasma transport protein synthesized in the liver. TTR-derived fibrils show avidity for bone tracers, especially 99mTechnetium-3,3-diphosphono-1,2-propano-di-carboxylic acid
(99mTc-DPD). (Source: Cardiophile MD)
Source: Cardiophile MD - April 29, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis, MD, DM, FACC, FRCP Edin, FRCP London Tags: Cardiology MCQ DM / DNB Cardiology Entrance Source Type: blogs
Left ventricular hypertrophy with dysfunction – M-Mode echocardiogram
Left ventricular hypertrophy with dysfunction
M-mode echocardiogram showing gross left ventricular hypertrophy and moderate to severe left ventricular dysfunction. Inset shows short axis view of left ventricle demonstrating severe concentric left ventricular hypertrophy. IVS: interventricular septum. LVPW: left ventricular posterior wall. IVSd: interventricular septum in diastole; LVIDd: left ventricular diastolic dimension in diastole; LVPWD: left ventricular posterior wall in diastole; IVSs: interventricular septum in systole; LVIDs: left ventricular internal dimension in systole
Left ventricular systolic dysfunction occ...
Source: Cardiophile MD - April 12, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis, MD, DM, FACC, FRCP Edin, FRCP London Tags: Echocardiogram Library Source Type: blogs
More on Molecular Tweezers to Treat Amyloid Accumulation
Amyloids are misfolded proteins that gather to form solid aggregates in tissues. Their presence grows with age and some types of amyloid are known to contribute to the pathology of specific age-related conditions: amyloid-β in Alzheimer's disease and misfolded transthyretin in senile systemic amyloidosis for example. Any potential rejuvenation toolkit must include a reliable technology platform for clearance of the various forms of amyloid. Of late researchers have been working on the use of what they call molecular tweezers for this purpose, and seem to be making meaningful progress:
An international team of more than ...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 31, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Living Longer and Aging More Slowly
The old are not as physically aged as they used to be. Today's old people are in better shape than their predecessors, with access to better medicine and having been exposed to a lesser burden of infectious disease and other causes of cell and tissue damage over the course of a lifetime. Given the pace of progress in medical science these improvements can be seen even over the course of the past few decades. Many of today's researchers look at this and see compression of morbidity, a popular viewpoint in which it is believed that healthy life span can be extended considerably without extending overall life span. This doesn...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 30, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Data on Brain Aging and Early Signs of Alzheimer's Disease
The brain is impacted by the processes of degenerative aging for decades before the damage rises to noticeable levels. When the technologies exist to repair this damage, treatments should ideally begin in the middle of life, not wait until there are obvious signs of degeneration. Prevention beforehand is better than restoration after the fact, for all that most of us are, at best, going to forced along the restoration route given the prospective timelines for the development of repair therapies:
Typical cognitive aging may be defined as age-associated changes in cognitive performance in individuals free of dementia. To as...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 17, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Leading from the Front to the Last
I rarely write obituaries, because once you start where do you stop? Perhaps a hundred and fifty thousand lives are lost every day, most due to aging and its consequences, and it isn't just the few people you happened to exchange emails with who are worthy of notice. Yet monuments are at root a selfish undertaking on behalf of the living, and we can easily bury ourselves in mourning and symbolism. Ultimately one has to ask: is this an initiative about death or is this an initiative about life? The world has too many thinly disguised death cults. Cruelly, even after yet another individual in one's personal circle of vision ...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 4, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Healthy Life Extension Community Source Type: blogs
SENS Research Foundation 2014 Annual Report
Following on from the recent Rejuvenation Research 2014 conference, the SENS Research Foundation staff have released their latest annual report. The Foundation is perhaps the only organization to presently focus entirely on advancing repair-based approaches to the development of treatments for aging: take the known root causes, the fundamental forms of damage that distinguish old tissues from young tissues, and build ways to fix them. Unlike other possible approaches to treating aging, there is a clear path forward, as all the forms of damage are identified and one or more potential strategies for developing effective form...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 20, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Aging: Humanity Faces a Major Problem
The cost of aging is enormous, far greater than any other single cause of pain, suffering, and death. Approximately two thirds of all deaths are due to aging and its consequences: more than 100,000 lives are lost to aging each and every day. These are rarely pleasant or easy ends. Aging progressively raises the chance of suffering a range of fatal or disabling medical conditions: cardiovascular disease, amyloidosis, dementia, and many others. Hundreds of millions of people live with ever worsening chronic pain, disability, and suffering as a result of aging.
The overwhelming majority of all medical expenditure goes toward...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 14, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
A Look at the Current State of Drug Treatments for Amyloidosis
We report here treatment with lenalidomide-dexamethasone in 84 AL amyloidosis patients with relapsed/refractory clonal disease following prior treatment with thalidomide (76%) and/or bortezomib (68%).
On an intention-to-treat (ITT) basis, the overall haematological response rate was 61%, including 20% complete responses. The median overall survival (OS) has not been reached; 2-year OS and progression-free survival (PFS) was 84% and 73%, respectively. Achieving a free light chain (FLC) response was an independent good prognostic factor for OS in multivariate analysis. There was no impact of prior thalidomide or bortezomib...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 7, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Rejuvenation Biotechnology Update for September 2014
In this study, the researchers used a genetic switch to induce FOXN1 expression in the thymic epithelial cells of mice, and compared them with mice that did not have FOXN1 induced. They observed that with FOXN1 induction, the thymus was regenerated from progenitor thymic epithelial cells that were still present in the aged thymus. They found that when FOXN1 was induced, the size of the thymus was larger, the expression of genes associated with a young, active thymus was increased, and the production of native T cells was boosted.
Thymic involution is one of the main contributors to declining immune system function with ag...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 3, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Healthy Life Extension Community Source Type: blogs
Transthyretin Amyloidosis as a Cause of Lumbar Spinal Stenosis
Transthyretin (TTR) amyloidosis, also known as senile systemic amyloidosis, occurs as a misfolded form of transthyretin forms solid deposits in tissues. In young people this is only threatening when accompanied by rare genetic mutations that greatly accelerate the process, but ongoing accumulation of this amyloid throughout life happens to everyone. If you live to a very great age and survive all of the other forms of age-related disease, then this amyloid will grow to clog your cardiovascular system and kill you. Safe removal of this transthyretin amyloid must thus be a part of any future rejuvenation treatment, and so th...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 20, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
