Chronological Age is Not a Good Component of Patient Risk Assessment
Chronological age is embedded in a great many standardized, widely-used protocols for patient risk assessment. Age-related diseases are, after all, age-related, and this use of chronological age has long seemed a reasonable choice. That said, we are now moving into an era in which novel means of measuring biological age are under development, such as epigenetic clocks.
Biological age is the burden of damage and dysfunction resulting from the causative processes of aging. Obviously, this should better reflect the odds of suffering age-related disease. While biological age correlates with chronological age, there is a...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 9, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
A Direct Link Between Genomic Instability and Inflammation in Senescent Cells
Aging is characterized by constant sterile inflammation, a state that is disruptive to tissue structure and function. A number of forms of molecular damage have been shown via various mechanisms to provoke this inflammation. Mitochondrial dysfunction, for example causes mitochondrial DNA to mislocalize to the cytoplasm, where it triggers an innate immune response that evolved to recognize the presence of bacterial DNA. Mitochondria are the evolved descendants of ancient symbiotic bacteria, and their remnant DNA is close enough to bacterial genomes for this to occur.
In today's open access paper, researchers discuss ...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 8, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
HKDC1 and TFEB in Maintenance of Mitophagy and Lysosomal Function
Researchers here report that HKDC1 is important in the autophagic processes that remove worn and damaged mitochondria, sending them to be recycled in the lysosome. Mitochondrial function declines with age, and this is thought to result in large part due to this decline in mitophagy, the name given to mitochondria-specific autophagy. Finding novel targets for therapies that might enhance mitophagy is a popular topic, despite the comparatively poor results obtained to date. Few of the existing approaches are better than exercise. Much more is needed if the objective is to significantly slow aging.
Mitochondria power...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 8, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 8th 2024
This study examined whether the local injection of the supernatant of activated PRP (saPRP) into the salivary gland (SG) could help prevent aging-induced SG dysfunction and explored the mechanisms responsible for the protective effects on the SG hypofunction.
Human salivary gland epithelial cells (hSGEC) were treated with saPRP or PRP after senescence through irradiation. The significant proliferation of hSGEC was observed in saPRP treated group compared to irradiation only group and irradiation + PRP group. Cellular senescence, apoptosis, and inflammation were significantly reduced in the saPRP group.
Th...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 7, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Sirtuin 2 Overexpression Fails to Extend Life in Mice
One long-lasting result of the hype engineered over sirtuin 1 overexpression as a possible avenue to modestly slow aging is a continued focus on other sirtuins in the context of aging. Sirtuin 1 overexpression turned out to be entirely unimpressive, a dead end. Sirtuin 6, however, is more interesting, and overexpression in mice does modestly extend life span, possibly by improving DNA repair efficiency. It may also be the case that sirtuin 3 overexpression can improve mitochondrial function to a great enough degree to also be interesting.
On the whole, however, this sort of approach to manipulating metabolism has y...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 4, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Replacing Crash Bleeps – The Time Has Come
The following is a guest article by Hannah Parrish, Marketing Executive at Alertive
Improving coordination among hospital staff helps reduce the risk of communication errors (70% of sentinel events are caused by poor communication), positively impacts patient wait times, and improves staff morale. The traditional practice of using bleeps to respond to emergency calls, often referred to as crash calls, is now being replaced by a digital alternative with the benefit of data to evidence the improvements that can be delivered.
The Shift from Bleeps to Digital Messaging
John Wintour-Pittom, Head of Ops for Telecoms at Imperial ...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - January 4, 2024 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: Clinical Communication and Patient Experience Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System Alertive Bleeps Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust Digital Messaging Hannah Parrish Helen Pardoe Imperial College Health Source Type: blogs
Cellular Senescence in the Aging and Dysfunction of Skin
A great deal of research and development effort is now focused on finding ways to reduce the contribution of senescent cells to degenerative aging. Initiatives range from fundamental research into the biochemistry of senescent cells to clinical trials of early senolytic therapies capable of selectively destroying senescent cells. A growing burden of senescent cells is a feature of all organs and tissues in the body, the skin included. Researchers here discuss what is known of the role of cellular senescence in aging and dysfunction of skin, and what might be done about it.
The skin is the largest organ of the huma...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 4, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Failing Mitochondrial Quality Control in Aging and Neurodegeneration
Every one of our cells contains hundreds of mitochondria, the descendants of ancient symbiotic bacteria now fully integrated into our biochemistry. Mitochondria contain their own small remnant genome, the mitochondrial DNA, replicate like bacteria, and toil to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a chemical energy store molecule used to power cell processes. Mitochondrial function declines with age, unfortunately, and our cells suffer for it. This contributes meaningfully to many age-related conditions. This decline appears to result in large part from changes in gene expression that impair the various quality control pro...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 2, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 1st 2024
Discussion of What is Need to Speed the Pace at which Drugs to Treat Aging Arrive in the Clinic
Cellular Senescence in the Aging Brain, a Contributing Cause of Cognitive Decline
Reviewing What is Known of the Mechanisms of Taurine Supplementation Relevant to Aging and Metabolism
Blunt Thoughts on Calculating the Revealed Value of Human Life
A Look Back at 2023: Progress Towards the Treatment of Aging as a Medical Condition
Towards Adjustment of the Gut Microbiome to Slow Aging
Gene Therapy Enhances Object Recognition Memory in Young and Old Mice
Benefits of Sem...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 31, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
A Look Back at 2023: Progress Towards the Treatment of Aging as a Medical Condition
The market has been in the doldrums and it has been a tough year for fundraising, both for non-profits and biotech startups. The conferences have exhibited more of an academic focus as companies tightened belts and postponed investment rounds, while investors stayed home. Not that this halts the flow of hype for some projects, and nor has it slowed media commentary on the longevity industry as it presently stands. A few of the articles in that commmentary are even interesting to read! The field has grown and is more mature now than has ever been the case. Biotech of all forms is a challenging field with a high failure rate...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 29, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Of Interest Source Type: blogs
CD38 in Ovarian Aging
The ovaries, like the thymus, are interesting for their comparatively early exhibition of age-related degeneration. Is there anything useful that can be learned about aging more generally by looking at the portions of the body that experience aging more rapidly? That remains to be seen. Here, researchers investigate NAD+ metabolism in the ovaries versus other tissues, noting that CD38, an enzyme that removes NAD+, is more active earlier in life. Approaches to maintain NAD+ levels slow ovarian aging, including knocking out CD38.
Delayed childbearing is prevalent worldwide, and ovarian senescence occurs earlier than...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 29, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Investigating the Regenerative Prowess of Jellyfish
Finding out exactly how some species can regenerate lost body parts without loss of function may provide means to enhance human regeneration, and possibly also tissue maintenance in old age. It is too early to say whether gains are possible in the near future, or whether introducing new capacities into human biochemistry in this way will prove to be a very hard task. Most research into exceptional regenerative capabilities is focused on salamanders and zebrafish, with some work going into the basis for unusual mammalian regeneration such as that exhibited by MRL mice and African spiny mice. These are not the only highly re...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 29, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
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
A young woman with palpitations. What med is she on? With what medication is she non-compliant? What management?
Written by Pendell MeyersA woman in her 20s with connective tissue disorder and history of aortic root and valve repair presented with palpitations. Here is her triage ECG: What do you think?Atrial flutter with 2:1 conduction. The atrial flutter rate is approximately 200 bpm, with 2:1 AV conduction resulting in ventricular rate almost exactly 100 bpm. The fact that the atrial flutter rate is 200 bpm (rather than more typical adult rate of ~300 bpm) suggests that the patient must have one or both of the following:1) enlarged atria ( " bigger race track " )2) sodium channel blockade ( " slower race car "...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - December 24, 2023 Category: Cardiology Authors: Pendell Source Type: blogs
Econoclasm: Lesson four
I will interrupt myself here to note that yes, there are people who are pursuing economics as an empirical science, and they have indeed demonstrated that the so-called neo-classical economic theory as taught to first-year college students is not a description of the real world. My point in this presentation is that many people, including journalists and politicians, believe that it is. This pernicious falsehood horribly contaminates public discourse. So yes, it does require debunking. There are a couple of additional problems with the concept of the free market that don ’t stem directly from the faulty assumptions....
Source: Stayin' Alive - December 22, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
