Fight Aging! Newsletter, December 25th 2023
This study generates a comprehensive single-cell transcriptomic atlas of human atherosclerosis including 118,578 high-quality cells from atherosclerotic coronary and carotid arteries. By performing systematic benchmarking of integration methods, we mitigated data overcorrection while separating major cell lineages. Notably, we define cell subtypes that have not been previously identified from individual human atherosclerosis scRNA-seq studies. Besides characterizing granular cell-type diversity and communication, we leverage this atlas to provide insights into smooth muscle cell (SMC) modulation. We integrate genome...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 24, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs

Induction of Autophagy Slows High Fat Diet Induced Atherosclerosis in Mice
Atherosclerosis is the name given to the growth of fatty lesions in blood vessel walls, narrowing and weakening blood vessels, and eventually rupturing to cause a heart attack or stroke. This is the primary cause of human mortality. Many approaches have been demonstrated to slow the progression of atherosclerosis in the most commonly used mouse models, in which atherosclerosis is rapidly induced by a combination of high fat diet and the disabling of genes, such as APOE and LDLR, that are important to maintain normal blood cholesterol levels and cholesterol transport. Very few approaches have been shown to produce a reducti...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 22, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Existing Geroprotective Drugs May Not Interact Well with Exercise
The big disadvantage of the geroprotective approach to aging, which is essentially to undertake the long-term use of supplements and small molecule drugs to alter metabolism in ways that slow aging over years and decades, is that distinct supplements and small molecules and adjustments tend to combine in unexpected ways. Short of testing every combination in laboratory species, something that Brian Kennedy's team has been working on, one can never know the outcome of combining a treatment. Based on presentations and interviews given by Kennedy in the last few years, the result of combining two geroprotectors that individua...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 21, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Inflammaging in the Inner Ear, a Path to Hearing Loss
Inflammaging is a blanket term for the inappropriate inflammatory reaction of the immune system to the accumulation of molecular damage and other changes that take place with age. Constant, low-grade, unresolved inflammatory activation of the immune system is a feature of aging. It alters cell behavior for the worse and is disruptive to tissue structure and function. A number of different mechanisms contribute to forming and maintaining the state of inflammaging, such as pro-inflammatory signaling produced by ever-larger numbers of senescent cells, and innate immune recognition of mislocalized mitochondrial DNA that result...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 20, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

5 Things We Learnt About Investments In Digital Health: Our E-book
At The Medical Futurist (TMF), and especially at The Medical Futurist Institute, we don’t usually deal with investment-related news and announcements. We receive many press releases coming from incubators and venture capital firms each week, but we never share them on our channels. Even though we focus on technologies and trends rather than companies of interest to investors, this doesn’t mean that we don’t keep a close eye on all these developments.  We are in close contact with many digital health startup founders, analyze the technologies they work on and objectively share news relevant to investors. A...
Source: The Medical Futurist - December 19, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Pranavsingh Dhunnoo Tags: Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Biotechnology Health Sensors & Trackers MySugr theranos invest portable diagnostics Gary rule Kardia CliniCloud tmfi alivecor MagicLeap covid19 digital health investors pandemic ecg R Source Type: blogs

Reviewing the Contributions of Circadian Rhythm Dysfunction and Dysbiosis to Blood-Brain Barrier Leakage
The blood-brain barrier is a layer of specialized cells wrapping blood vessels that pass through the brain. Only certain molecules and cells are admitted. The metabolism of the brain is thus isolated from that of the rest of the body. In particular, the immune system of the brain is quite different from that of the rest of the body. Unfortunately, this isolation is a vulnerability when, like all biological systems, the blood-brain barrier begins to break down and leak. The leakage of inappropriate molecules and cells into the brain provokes inflammation and dysfunction, and this is likely a contributing factor in the devel...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 18, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Fight Aging! Newsletter, December 18th 2023
In conclusion, given the relative safety and the favourable effects of aspirin, its use in cancer seems justified, and ethical implications of this imply that cancer patients should be informed of the present evidence and encouraged to raise the topic with their healthcare team. « Back to Top Aged Transplant Organs Cause Harm to Younger Recipients https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2023/12/aged-transplant-organs-cause-harm-to-younger-recipients/ Old tissues are dysfunctional in ways that young tissues are not. This has always been known in the context of organ transplants, but absent me...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 17, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs

Changes in the Gut Microbiome Correlate with Aging and Renal Function
The gut microbiome changes with age. Pro-inflammatory microbial populations grow in size at the expense of populations that produce beneficial metabolites. As researchers produce increasingly large databases of the composition of the gut microbiome across ages and populations, they are also mapping a growing number of specific connections between microbial species and aspects of aging. Some of this work shows causation, but most human data can only show correlations between aspects of the gut microbiome and aspects of aging. In today's open access paper, the authors focused on finding links between the gut microbiome and t...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 15, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Building Aging Clocks for Specific Organs from Circulating Protein Levels
As illustrated by the last decade or so of research, any sufficiently complex set of biological data can be mined via machine learning to produce algorithms that report chronological age and incorporate some sensitivity to biological age. Biological data changes over time, and many of those changes are characteristic of age. The processes and dysfunctions of age touch on all mechanisms in the body, given time. The hypothetical perfect measure of biological age would accurately predict mortality risk, and be a comprehensive reflection of the burden of damage and dysfunction resulting from processes of aging. That may be imp...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 14, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Klotho Levels Decline with Age, But Are Unaffected by Physical Fitness at a Given Age
Klotho is a longevity-associated gene. Klotho functions within the cell, but a portion of the full protein is also released into the bloodstream. In humans, higher levels of circulating klotho correlate with lower incidence of age-related disease and mortality. In mice, interventions such as gene therapies that increase klotho levels have been shown to extend life, while reducing klotho levels shortens life. Klotho is thought to act within the kidney, where it is protective, slowing age-related decline of kidney function. Increased klotho levels produce cognitive improvement in mice and non-human primates, however, and hig...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 13, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

The NIA Interventions Testing Program Shows that Fisetin Does Not Extend Life in Mice
The latest results from the NIA Interventions Testing Program (ITP) were recently published. The ITP conducts the most rigorous of animal life span studies, frequently demonstrating that earlier promising results were incorrect. The most interesting outcome from this batch of different interventions is that fisetin, demonstrated to clear senescent cells in mice and improve health measures, did not extend life. In contrast, dasatinib and quercetin, the most well-studied senolytic, has been shown by other groups to extend life in mice, by 36% in one study. This is puzzling! We might theorize that either fisetin at th...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 12, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Exercise Beneficially Alters Polarization of Microglia in the Brain
Regular moderate exercise remains one of the most beneficial interventions when it comes to slowing the progression of degenerative aging, if balancing effect size against volume of supporting data. This isn't where we'd like to be! Biotechnology is capable of so very much more, but progress is slow, and robust assessment of new therapies across large populations slower still. Exercise introduces sweeping changes in cellular biochemistry and the function of higher level systems in the body, which makes it an ongoing challenge for the research community to understand exactly how it produces benefits. As is usually the case,...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 11, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Fight Aging! Newsletter, December 11th 2023
In this study, a single treatment at the peak of disease resulted in the ablation of senescent cells in the lung and attenuation of key fibrotic and inflammatory markers, which ultimately resolved fibrosis. Deciduous Therapeutics has used computational assisted design to synthesise a suite of proprietary therapies that could be used in the clinic to re-activate tissue-resident iNKT cells. To date, the company's lead program has shown single-dose efficacy in resolving both metabolic and fibrotic diseases along with a favorable safety profile at doses significantly higher than the efficacious dose. « Back to ...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 10, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs

Targeting Oxidative Stress to Provoke Greater Tissue Maintenance and Regeneration in the Aging Heart
The heart is one of the least regenerative organs, and what limited ability it has to recover from injury is further diminished by age. This is of particular concern in the context of recovery from a heart attack, which leaves regions of scar tissue rather than functional tissue, weakening the heart. The best approach to this problem is to prevent heart attacks from occurring in the first place, which would have to be achieved by in some way halting and reversing the underlying processes of atherosclerosis and the growth of fatty lesions in the vasculature. There is enthusiasm for this goal in academia and industry, at lea...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 7, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

VCAM1 and APOE Involved in Microglial Clearance of Amyloid- β
One of the characteristics of neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease is the inflammatory activation and dysfunction of microglia. These are cells of the innate immune system distinct to the brain, analogous to macrophages elsewhere in the body. They undertake a similar portfolio of tasks, including chasing down pathogens, destroying errant cells, cleaning up waste and debris such as toxic aggregated proteins found outside cells, and aiding in tissue maintenance and repair. When microglia are in an inflammatory state, they are less inclined to aid in tissue maintenance and clearance of harmful metabolic wa...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 6, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs