NALCN is a Regulator of Cancer Metastasis
If cancers were not metastatic, did not spread themselves throughout the body, then cancer would be a much less dangerous medical condition. Tumors would be largely amenable to surgical removal, and long-term control and suppression of cancer, even at late stages, would be a feasible goal. Thus research into the biochemistry of metastasis is important. If commonalities exist in the regulation of metastasis across many cancers, interventions to suppress metastasis could lead to a sizable reduction in cancer mortality. The research here shows that cancers may hijack an existing regulatory mechanism controlling cell motility ...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 6, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Magnetic Fields Modestly Extend Life in Nematode Worms via Effects on Mitochondrial Function
Electromagnetic effects on cellular biochemistry, and their potential use as interventions, are little studied in comparison to the use of pharmaceutical agents. That state of affairs shows little sign of changing in the near future, despite the existence of interesting studies on regeneration, or this one on the longevity of nematodes. Researchers pin down a potential mechanism to explain how a magnetic field can alter the activities of cells in ways that modestly extend life in this short-lived species. It is worth noting that nematode life span is very plastic in response to circumstances and interventions. Approaches t...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 6, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
DNA Damage and Inflammation in Aging
Both stochastic DNA damage and chronic inflammation are characteristic of aging. DNA damage can contribute to inflammatory signaling via a range of mechanisms, but, as noted here, it is challenging in a system as complex as our cellular biochemistry to pick apart the relative importance of these mechanisms. It is nonetheless reasonable to think that some fraction of the unresolved inflammation of aging, disruptive to tissue function throughout the body, results from the increased amount of DNA damage in later life.
Persistent DNA lesions build up with aging triggering inflammation, the body's first line of immune ...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 5, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, October 3rd 2022
In conclusion, based on the analysis of proteomics and transcriptome, we identified four SRMs that may affect aging and speculated their possible mechanisms, which provides a new target for preventing aging, especially skin aging.
A Popular Science Article on the State of Epigenetic Clocks
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2022/09/a-popular-science-article-on-the-state-of-epigenetic-clocks/
This popular science article is a good view of the present state of development and use of epigenetic clocks, covering the issues as well as the promise. Epigenetic age can be measured, with many different clocks...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 2, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
A Mechanism by Which Herpesvirus May Accelerate Amyloid- β Aggregation Leading to Alzheimer's Disease
There is some debate over whether persistent viral infection, such as by herpesvirus, contributes meaningfully to the onset and development of Alzheimer's disease. It would be a convenient explanation, given that many people with all of the lifestyle risk factors for neurodegeneration, such as being overweight and sedentary, do not in fact go on to develop Alzheimer's. The epidemiology is mixed, however, with some studies suggesting yes, some no. Some of the positive data suggests that use of antiviral drugs lowers the risk of Alzheimer's. More recent work argues that multiple different viral infections are required for a ...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 29, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Studying and Sharing the Big Questions of Biology
Dr. Pedro Márquez-Zacarías. Credit: Courtesy of Dr. Pedro Márquez-Zacarías.
When he started high school in Mexico, Pedro Márquez-Zacarías, Ph.D., wanted to be a politician. However, as he became aware of issues like corruption, he began looking into other fields. Chemistry fascinated him, so he enrolled in a class at his school that was later canceled partway through the year. He then joined a biology class because it included a unit on biochemistry, and through that experience, found that he enjoyed other aspects of biology as well—so much so that he went on to compete in the International Biology Olympiad, a co...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - September 28, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Evolutionary Biology Profiles Training Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, September 26th 2022
This study examined the dose-response association between daily step count and intensity and incidence of all-cause dementia among adults in the UK. This was a UK Biobank prospective population-based cohort study (February 2013 to December 2015) with 6.9 years of follow-up (data analysis conducted May 2022). A total of 78,430 of 103,684 eligible adults aged 40 to 79 years with valid wrist accelerometer data were included. Registry-based dementia was ascertained through October 2021.
We found no minimal threshold for the beneficial association of step counts with incident dementia. Our findings suggest that approxima...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 25, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Continued Hope that Amyloid- β is the Cause of Alzheimer's Disease, an Amyloid Cascade Hypothesis 2.0
Is the slow amyloid-β aggregation, occurring for years prior to the onset of evident symptoms, really the cause of Alzheimer's disease? The amyloid cascade hypothesis suggests that this accumulation of misfolded amyloid-β, and the toxic biochemistry surrounding its aggregates, set the stage for the much more severe later stage of Alzheimer's disease, in which neuroinflammation and tau aggregation kill neurons - and ultimately the patient. The hypothesis makes sense given what is known of the relevant biochemistry, but has been strongly challenged by (a) the great difficulty in clearing amyloid-β from the brain, a projec...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 23, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Career Conversations: Q & A with Bioengineer C ésar de la Fuente
Dr. César de la Fuente. Credit: Martí E. Berenguer.
“Science provides adventure and excitement every single day. When you’re pushing boundaries, you get to jump into the abyss of new areas. It can be scary, but it’s an incredible opportunity to try to improve our world and people’s lives,” says César de la Fuente, Ph.D., a Presidential Assistant Professor in the Perelman School of Medicine and School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Our interview with Dr. de la Fuente highlights his journey of becoming a scientist and his research using artificial intelligen...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - September 21, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacology Bacteria Computational Biology Drug Resistance Medicines Profiles Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, September 5th 2022
Conclusion
Coupled with the animal data, and the existing human trial data for safety, the results here suggests that someone should run a formal, controlled trial of flagellin immunization in older people, 65 and over. The goal would be to see whether (a) this sort of outcome holds up in a larger group of people, and (b) there is a meaningful impact on chronic inflammation and other parameters of health that are known to be affected by the aging of the gut microbiome.
The most interesting part of the data is perhaps the decline in microbial diversity, when considered against the gains elsewhere. Microbial dive...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 4, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Two Year Update on a Study of One with Flagellin Immunization to Adjust the Gut Microbiome
Conclusion
Coupled with the animal data, and the existing human trial data for safety, the results here suggests that someone should run a formal, controlled trial of flagellin immunization in older people, 65 and over. The goal would be to see whether (a) this sort of outcome holds up in a larger group of people, and (b) there is a meaningful impact on chronic inflammation and other parameters of health that are known to be affected by the aging of the gut microbiome.
The most interesting part of the data is perhaps the decline in microbial diversity, when considered against the gains elsewhere. Microbial dive...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 1, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Self-Experimentation Source Type: blogs
Lifelong Exercise Considerably Reduces Sarcopenia in Mice
In today's study, researchers report on a comparison between mice undergoing life-long exercise (a wheel in their cage) versus more sedentary mice (no wheel). The authors note that the age-related onset of sarcopenia is much reduced in the exercising mice, which we could perhaps take as more of an indication of the harms of a lack of exercise than of the benefits of exercise per se. This is perhaps the least interesting part of the data and discussion, however. One of the points being made by the researchers is that the effects of life-long exercise are underestimated by the research community, because this intervention is...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 31, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Training Students and Communicating Science on Capitol Hill
Dr. Mikhail Bobylev. Credit: Minot State University.
“I’ve been infected with this enthusiasm for science, and I think that carries over to my students. Essentially, I lead by example,” says Mikhail Bobylev, Ph.D., a professor of chemistry at Minot State University in Minot, North Dakota. He researches ways to improve the chemical synthesis of medicinal molecules, and since 2004, he’s has mentored more than 70 undergraduate researchers in his lab with support from the NIGMS-funded North Dakota IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE).
Dr. Bobylev focuses on training students to conduct rigorous,...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - August 31, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Profiles Training Source Type: blogs
Engineering an Increase in Retrotransposon Activity Accelerates Aspects of Aging in Flies
One has to be somewhat careful when declaring that an intervention produces accelerated aging. Interventions that reduce health and life span in ways that mimic aspects of aging tend to be narrow in effect, causing elevated levels of a specific form of molecular damage, often one of those thought to be involved in natural aging. DNA repair deficiencies cause what looks a lot like accelerated aging, but should really be thought of as an excess of only one type of age-related damage, nuclear DNA damage. It might be possible to learn things from this type of malfunction, but given that it is very unlike natural aging, it is m...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 30, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, August 29th 2022
This study demonstrates that adoptive astrocytic Mt transfer enhances neuronal Mn-SOD-mediated anti-oxidative defense and neuroplasticity in the brain, which potentiate functional recovery following ICH.
First Generation Stem Cell Therapies Remain Comparatively Poorly Understood
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2022/08/first-generation-stem-cell-therapies-remain-comparatively-poorly-understood/
We are something like thirty years into the increasingly widespread use of first generation stem cell therapies. Cells are derived from a variety of sources, processed, and transplanted into patients. Near all...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 28, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
