Proteases in the Biochemistry of Aging
Proteases are an important category of molecular machinery in the cell, one of several responsible for breaking down proteins and other molecules into component parts that can be recycled. Proteases operate as a part of the cellular maintenance processes that remove excess or damaged and potentially damaging structures and proteins. The quality of this cellular maintenance influences cell and tissue function, and improved maintenance is a feature of many interventions, genetic and otherwise, that modestly slow aging in short-lived laboratory species. Looking at all proteases in the context of aging is a little broad for on...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 8, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
A Lesser Diversity of Circulating Antibodies in the Aging Killifish Immune System
Short-lived killifish are one of the more recently adopted animal models of aging. All such models are a trade-off between the cost of running studies and the relevance of their biochemistry to long-lived mammals such as our own species. Fortunately, a lot of the cellular biochemistry of aging is similar enough to make such models useful; unfortunately the differences are often significant enough to sink specific attempts to discover mechanisms and build new therapies. Here, researchers look at the aging immune system in killifish, finding a feature known to exist in humans, and further digging in to the details.
...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 4, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Discovering Better Ways to Build Medicinal Molecules
Dr. Phil Baran. Credit: Scripps Research.
“I love the mystery of chemistry. It explores the great unknown of the universe,” says Phil Baran, Ph.D., a professor of chemistry at Scripps Research, La Jolla, California. His passion for the subject catalyzed a successful career in organic synthesis—building molecules that are the foundation of living things and can be developed as medicines.
Setting His Sights on Science
School didn’t interest Dr. Baran until he found chemistry in 10th grade. “From there, the mission was clear: do whatever was required to do chemistry for the rest of my life,” he says. At t...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - March 30, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacology Medicines Profiles Source Type: blogs
Dibs on a RNA Computer
BY KIM BELLARD
I’ve given DNA a lot of love over the years — DNA as a storage medium, as a computing platform, as the basis for robots, as the tool for synthetic biology/biohacking, even used for the DNA-of-Things (DoT). DNA is the basis for all life as we know it, in every category of life we’ve found anywhere on earth. That we are now using it to achieve technological goals seems like one of humankind’s greatest accomplishments.
But where’s the love for RNA, DNA’s putative ancestor and still-partner? A few recent developments in RNA caught my eye that I wanted to give their due.
...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 29, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Tech Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, March 28th 2022
In conclusion, we summarized here evidence for a novel therapeutic approach to exploit the incredible ability of mitochondria to engage multifaceted neuroprotective stress response triggered by partial complex I inhibition. This approach promises relief for multiple human conditions, and to promote healthy aging to delay the onset of neurogenerative diseases, AD in particular, where age is the greatest risk factor. There is a mounting body of evidence generated in model organisms and humans in support of the safety of chronic application of complex I inhibitors. However, a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms i...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 27, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Partially Inhibiting Mitochondrial Complex I as an Approach to Therapy
In conclusion, we summarized here evidence for a novel therapeutic approach to exploit the incredible ability of mitochondria to engage multifaceted neuroprotective stress response triggered by partial complex I inhibition. This approach promises relief for multiple human conditions, and to promote healthy aging to delay the onset of neurogenerative diseases, AD in particular, where age is the greatest risk factor. There is a mounting body of evidence generated in model organisms and humans in support of the safety of chronic application of complex I inhibitors. However, a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms i...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 21, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, March 21st 2022
This study was the first to examine how these networks interact with physical activity and fitness to impact how the brain functions.
"This paper is exciting because it gives us some evidence that when people whose brain networks aren't functioning optimally engage in physical activity, we see improvement in their executive function and their independence. Maybe just take the stairs on the way to work. Stand up and walk around a little bit more. That's where you get the most bang for your buck, not crazy, high-intensity exercise."
Variations in Biological Age Across Organs in Younger Individuals
https:/...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 20, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
The (sort of, partial) Father mRNA Vaccines Who Now Spreads Vaccine Misinformation (Part 2)
By DAVID WARMFLASH, MD
This is part 2 of David Warmlash’s takedown of Robert W. Malone’s appearance (transcript) on the Rogan podcast. Part 1 is here
Menstruation and Fertility
Much more than the line about reproductive damage in the Wisconsin News clip that we used to open the story, Malone used the Rogan interview to dive more deeply into the topic, starting with:
…there’s a huge number of dysmenorrhea and menometrorrhagia…
By that, he meant excessive menstrual cramping and very heavy, often irregular, bleeding, which he followed up with:
…they DENY it…
Judging by other parts ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 18, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: COVID-19 Health Policy antivaxxer COVID-19 vaccine David Warmflash Joe Rogan Robert Malone Source Type: blogs
Variations in Biological Age Across Organs in Younger Individuals
Systems of measuring biological age are multiplying rapidly. There are many ways of going about this, from epigenetic clocks to weighted combinations of simple measures such as grip strength. Researchers here build their own assessments for the purpose of looking at aging in younger adults, 20s to 40s, a part of aging that is not well studied at all. The interesting outcome is that there appears to be a significant variation in assessed biological age between different organs and systems in the body. It is a little early to talk about why this arises, whether an artifact of the tools used, or reflects some underlying truth...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 18, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Reviewing the Mechanisms that Allow Senescent Cells to Resist Apoptosis
A large portion of research into senescent cells in the context of degenerative aging is focused on how these cells fail to destroy themselves. Senescent cells are primed to enter the programmed cell death process of apoptosis, but various mechanisms hold this off. Sabotaging some of those mechanisms is an effective way to clear a sizable fraction of senescent cells in many old tissues, as demonstrated by the initial small molecule senolytic treatments, such as the dasatinib and quercetin combination.
As the authors of today's open access paper note, the fact that these apoptosis-inducing senolytics are only partial...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 16, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, March 14th 2022
This study tests the feasibility of chronically elevating skeletal muscle NAD+ in mice and investigates the putative effects on mitochondrial respiratory capacity, insulin sensitivity, and gene expression. The metabolic effects of NR and PT treatment were modest. We conclude that the chronic elevation of skeletal muscle NAD+ by the intravenous injection of NR is possible but does not affect muscle respiratory capacity or insulin sensitivity in either sedentary or physically active mice. Our data have implications for NAD+ precursor supplementation regimens.
Muscle Strengthening Activities in Later Life Correlate ...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 13, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Diving Deeper into the Details of Disarrayed Gene Expression in Aged Tissues
It is well known that gene expression becomes disarrayed in cells in old tissues. Mechanisms controlling the structure of nuclear DNA become dysfunctional, and that can unleash all sorts of errant protein production by allowing the machinery of gene expression to reach sections of the genome that are normally folded away and inaccessible. Recent work suggests that cycles of DNA double strand break repair may be close to the root of the cause of this, but it is undoubtedly far from simple as a process. Impaired gene expression control likely results in a feedback loop causing further impairment in gene expression control. I...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 11, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
TMEM106B Aggregates in Neurodegenerative Disease
Researchers here report on their identification of a novel form of protein aggregate in the aging human brain, involving altered TMEM106B, associated with multiple types of neurodegenerative condition. It is far too early to talk about how greatly this dysfunction contributes to specific conditions, versus other, better characterized mechanisms. Determining whether it is important or a curiosity will be the work of years yet. The pace at which novel mechanisms such as this are discovered might give us some insight into how much more there is to be discovered in the biochemistry of the aging brain. TDP-43, another protein c...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 11, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Targeting the NLRP3 Inflammasome to Reduce Vascular Endothelium Dysfunction
Chronic inflammation is a potent mechanism in aging, disruptive of tissue function throughout the body. The focus in today's open access paper is on the effects of inflammatory signaling in blood vessel walls, particularly on the endothelial cells that play a role in maintaining the ability of blood vessels to contract and dilate. Dysfunction in blood vessels throughout the body causes harms ranging from hypertension to blood-brain barrier leakage to reduced blood flow that impacts the function of muscle and brain tissue.
Approaches to suppressing inflammatory signaling developed and brought to the clinic have to da...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 8, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, March 7th 2022
This study estimates that prescreening with a 500 blood test could reduce by half both the cost and the time it takes to enroll patients in clinical trials that use PET scans. Screening with blood tests alone could be completed in less than six months and cut costs by tenfold or more, the study finds. Known as Precivity AD, the commercial version of the test is marketed by C2N Diagnostics. The current study shows that the blood test remains highly accurate, even when performed in different labs following different protocols, and in different cohorts across three continents.
xCT Knockout Modestly Extends Life in M...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 6, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
