Fight Aging! Newsletter, March 6th 2023
In this study, we develop a rFOXN1 fusion protein that contains the N-terminal of CCR9, FOXN1, and TAT. We show here that, when injected intravenously (i.v.) into aged mice, the rFOXN1 fusion protein can migrate into the thymus and enhance T cell generation in the thymus, resulting in increased number of peripheral T cells. Our results suggest that the rFOXN1 fusion protein has the potential to be used in preventing and treating T cell immunodeficiency in the older adult.
Increased miR-181a-5p Expression Improves Neural Stem Cell Activity, Learning, and Memory in Old Mice
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/20...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 5, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Whoops! AI might have invented 40000 new toxic nerve agents … but probably not
TL:DR – Software used to predict which chemicals in a database have potential as new medicines has been flipped as a warning demonstrating that the same system could be used to predict whether they are highly toxic.
Artificial intelligence, AI, machine learning, language models, neural networks, generative models, algorithms trained on big data. A lovely collection of buzzwords that have been littering grant proposals for years and are now emerging into the real world as apps and websites and citizen science projects. For chemists and pharmaceutical scientists, AI has been a tool to experiment with for a long time. ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - March 4, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Artificial Intelligence Chemistry Source Type: blogs
Innovating Education, Outreach, and Mentorship With Organic Chemist Neil Garg
Dr. Neil Garg. Credit: Penny Jennings.
“An important part of being in science is being in a community,” says Neil Garg, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor and chair of the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). That philosophy has led him to prioritize mentorship, diversity, and inclusion—while maintaining research excellence—as well as re-envisioning what it means to educate students and the public.
Falling in Love With Chemistry
Science was always a part of Dr. Garg’s childhood. He participated in science fairs as a kid but says he did it for the commun...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - March 1, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacology Profiles Training Source Type: blogs
The Extended Fertility of Naked Mole-Rats
Naked mole-rats exhibit few signs of aging across a life span. Only the queens bear young, but they can continue do so into old age. As this study notes, they achieve this feat via a number of mechanisms that ensure a continued supply of egg cells. This isn't just a matter of minimizing damage to these cells and their supporting tissues, but also generating new egg cells in adult life, unlike other mammals. It remains an open question as to whether there is any great realization yet to be found in this comparative biology that will benefit efforts to extend human fertility into later life. It doesn't hurt to look.
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Source: Fight Aging! - February 28, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
RAND President and CEO Presenting to House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
RAND President and CEO Jason Matheny appeared on February 28, 2023, before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. His remarks covered advances in synthetic biology and artificial intelligence and their potential impact on national security. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - February 28, 2023 Category: Health Management Authors: Jason Matheny Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, February 27th 2023
This study tested the hypothesis that ischemic vascular repair in aging by Ang-(1-7) involves attenuation of myelopoietic potential in the bone marrow and decreased mobilization of inflammatory cells.
Young or Old male mice of age 3-4 and 22-24 months, respectively, received Ang-(1-7) for four weeks. Myelopoiesis was evaluated in the bone marrow (BM) cells by carrying out the colony forming unit (CFU-GM) assay followed by flow cytometry of monocyte-macrophages. Expression of pro-myelopoietic factors and alarmins in the hematopoietic progenitor-enriched BM cells was evaluated. Hindlimb ischemia (HLI) was induced by ...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 26, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Propelling Rare Disease Research for More Than 50 Years
Vials of samples from the NIGMS HGCR. Credit: Coriell Institute for Medical Research.
The year 2022 marked 50 years since the creation of the NIGMS Human Genetic Cell Repository (HGCR) at the Coriell Institute for Medical Research in Camden, New Jersey. The NIGMS HGCR consists of cell lines and DNA samples with a focus on those from people with rare, heritable diseases. “Many rare diseases now have treatments because of the samples in the NIGMS HGCR,” says Nahid Turan, Ph.D., Coriell’s chief biobanking officer and co-principal investigator of the NIGMS HGCR. She gives the example of a rare disease advocacy group wh...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - February 22, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Cells Genes Injury and Illness Diseases Genomics Scientific Process Source Type: blogs
A Discussion of Mitochondrially Derived Peptide MOTS-c
A number of mitochondrially derived peptides are thought to have positive effects on cell function, though as for most of the approaches of this nature, it is unclear that it is any better than a structured exercise program. One of the better studied of these peptides is MOTS-c, which is itself upregulated by exercise - arguably one of a number of known exercise mimetics. Delivering signal molecules that are normally upregulated by exercise should in principle recapture some of the beneficial effects of exercise, but so far this line of development has yet to much improve on exercise itself.
Mitochondria are organ...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 22, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
poem
The Mystery of SufferingThe old lady wasn ’t any better in the morning. She’d need to go to surgery. I gave her the straight dope; rationale, risks and benefits, alternatives etc. She received the news with fender bender equanimity. Folded her glasses in her lap. Smiled pleasantly. I trust what you say, doctor.Resigned to her fate. On her nightstand was a religious pamphlet opened up to a page entitled “The Mystery of Suffering”. Pain isn’t a mystery. We know how that works. C fibers and spinothalamic tracts and things of that nature. Straight biology. Teleologically we also know why: so old Kronk, the...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 22, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
Towards Ferrous Iron-Activated Senolytic Prodrugs to Clear Senescent Cells
Senescent cells accumulate with age throughout the body, and cause considerable disruption to tissue structure and function via their pro-inflammatory secretions. Clearing senescent cells is an important approach to rejuvenation and reversal of age-related disease, based on the impressive results produced in mice to date. One of the challenges inherent in the destruction of senescent cells is the variation shown in their biochemistry, depending on how they become senescent and on which tissue they reside in. Different treatments exhibit widely varying outcomes for different varieties of senescent cell, and those varieties ...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 21, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Thoughts on How to Help Advance Work on the Treatment of Aging
This article lists a variety of types of activity and project that might be undertaken to help to speed up the development of ways to treat aging as a medical condition. If you don't have a background in the life sciences, but nonetheless find human longevity a compelling topic, and would like to work in the field, what can you do? That is a good question, and often asked. There are many options that don't involve working as a scientist in a laboratory, though educating yourself about the science helps a great deal when it comes to picking the better options from the array of choices on the table.
Aging is a set o...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 21, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
What to do about disinformation?
This by Matthew Perrone of the AP has been showing up in a lot of places. He recounts the FDA ' s largely feckless battle against the sea of health-related bullshit that seems to have become an emblem of right-wing identity. He attributes the agency ' s credibility problem at least in part to some actual missteps, although he actually names only two -- approval of aducanumab for Alheimer ' s disease and what he asserts was a delayed response to the infant formula shortage. This I would say is a very weak causal attribution.I very much doubt that the people who are dosing themselves with horse dewormer are even aware of the...
Source: Stayin' Alive - February 20, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, February 20th 2023
In this study, researchers stimulate the ghrelin receptor using a suitable small molecule for much of the lifespan of mice, and observe the results. The overall extension of life span is a quarter of that produced by calorie restriction, and so we might draw some conclusions from that as to the relative importance of hunger in the benefits resulting from the practice of calorie restriction or fasting. Interestingly, the short term weight gains observed in mice given this ghrelin receptor agonist in the past don't appear in this long term study, in which the controls are the heaver animals. This is possibly because the rese...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 19, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Exploring the Role of Somatic Mosaicism in Human Biology
In this Director ’s message, Dr. Gordon introduces the Somatic Mosaicism across Human Tissues (SMaHT) Network—an NIH-wide initiative that aims to transform our understanding of how somatic mosaicism in human cells influences biology and disease. (Source: NIMH Directors Blog)
Source: NIMH Directors Blog - February 14, 2023 Category: Psychiatry Authors: National Institute of Mental Health Source Type: blogs
Apathy Explained: Why Some People Just Can ’ t Be Bothered
Some people have a can't be bothered attitude, but apathy could be partly down to biology. (Source: PsyBlog | Psychology Blog)
Source: PsyBlog | Psychology Blog - February 14, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jeremy Dean Tags: Neuroscience Source Type: blogs
