Fight Aging! Newsletter, February 1st 2021
In this study, we characterize age-related phenotypes of human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). We report increased frequencies of HSC, hematopoetic progenitor cells (HPC), and lineage negative cells in the elderly but a decreased frequency of multi-lymphoid progenitors. Aged human HSCs further exhibited a delay in initiating division ex vivo though without changes in their division kinetics. The activity of the small RhoGTPase Cdc42 was elevated in aged human hematopoietic cells and we identified a positive correlation between Cdc42 activity and the frequency of HSCs upon aging.
The frequency of human HSCs polar fo...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 31, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Profiles of Two Senolytics Companies with Quite Different Approaches
The two senolytics companies profiled here employ quite different approaches to the selective destruction of senescent cells, and indeed also to the business side of the equation - which age-related conditions to tackle first, whether to build a therapy or a platform for therapies, and so forth. These are two representative companies of a much larger number of groups working in this part of the field. It isn't just biotech startups. While the longevity industry is still small enough for lists of companies to be reasonably complete, the evidence for senescent cell clearance to produce rejuvenation is now comprehensive enoug...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 29, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Longevity Industry Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 25th 2021
In conclusion, our studies highlight the important role of the tyrosine degradation pathway and position TAT as a link between neuromediator production, dysfunctional mitochondria, and aging. (Source: Fight Aging!)
Source: Fight Aging! - January 24, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Request for Startups in the Rejuvenation Biotechnology Space, 2021 Edition
For a few years now, I've suggested areas of opportunity in rejuvenation biotechnology in which either (a) it seems quite viable to start a company, given what I've seen going on in industry and academia, or (b) it would be very helpful should someone step up with an approach that works, given the need for a solution. The longevity industry is still young, still small, and countless valuable programs in the aging research field remain waiting to be championed and carried forward to the clinic. The low-hanging fruit is still near all there to be claimed: what is possible is a far greater space than what is presently being a...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 22, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Longevity Industry Source Type: blogs
Will We All Have To Become Biologically Enhanced Superhumans?
Okay, hands up who can tell who’s the most famous biologically enhanced superhuman in the world? True, it’s a quite close call between Captain America and The Incredible Hulk (sorry Spidey, you’re not even close). But is a human-invented superhuman just a thing of a Stan Lee comic, or is it an actual scientific idea from a real laboratory?
As a matter of fact, enhancing human capabilities has been on the mind of people for ages, but it came a long way from ancient training methods to exoskeletons. Enhancing our abilities, be it permanently or temporarily is a tempting but risky matter. For will it be a possib...
Source: The Medical Futurist - January 21, 2021 Category: Information Technology Authors: Judit Kuszkó Tags: Forecast Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Augmented Reality Bioethics Biotechnology Cyborgization Digital Health Research E-Patients Genomics Health Sensors & Trackers Healthcare Policy Medical Education Robotics Science Ficti Source Type: blogs
Considering the Ethics of Extending the Healthy Human Life Span
To suffer or become incapacitated is to diminish the utility of being alive. The way to minimize this loss is to work towards removing the causes of suffering and incapacitation. The greatest such causes are medical, and of those, aging is by far the largest. Similarly, to die is to suffer the loss of all that one might have been and done after that time. It is a tragedy that any individual ceases to exist. The way to minimize this loss is to work to remove the causes of death. The greatest such causes are medical, and of those, aging is by far the largest. Ethically, the case for working to extend healthy human life spans...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 19, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 18th 2021
In this study, Desferal, deferoxamine mesylate for injection, which is approved for the treatment of acute iron intoxication and chronic iron overload, was used to explore the beneficial effects on preventing aging-induced bone loss and mitigating dysfunction of aged BMSCs. High-dose Desferal significantly prevented bone loss in aged rats. Compared with controls, the ex vivo experiments showed that short-term Desferal administration could promote the potential of BMSC growth and improve the rebalance of osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation, as well as rejuvenate senescent BMSCs and revise the expression of stemness/se...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 17, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
KAT7 Inhibition via Gene Therapy Reduces Cellular Senescence in the Liver and Extends Life in Mice
Since the confirmation of cellular senescence as an important contributing cause of aging, a great many research initiatives have focused on the biochemistry of senescent cells, in search of new approaches to rejuvenation therapies. A common strategy in the life sciences is to deactivate genes one by one and observe the results, in search of suitable regulators to change cell behavior. In today's open access paper, researchers report on the results of such a screen of gene functions, identifying KAT7 as a gene important in the regulation of cellular senescence in at least the liver.
The researchers screened for gene...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 13, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 4th 2021
The objective of this study is to quantify the overall and cancer type-specific risks of subsequent primary cancers (SPCs) among adult-onset cancer survivors by first primary cancer (FPC) types and sex. Among 1,537,101 survivors (mean age, 60.4 years; 48.8% women), 156,442 SPC cases and 88,818 SPC deaths occurred during 11,197,890 person-years of follow-up (mean, 7.3 years). Among men, the overall risk of developing any SPCs was statistically significantly higher for 18 of the 30 FPC types, and risk of dying from any SPCs was statistically significantly higher for 27 of 30 FPC types as compared with risks in the general po...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 3, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
A Look Back at 2020: Progress Towards the Treatment of Aging as a Medical Condition
While I suspect that COVID-19 will feature prominently in most retrospectives on 2020, I'll say only a little on it. The data on mortality by year end, if taken at face value, continues to suggest that the outcome will fall at the higher end of the early estimates of a pandemic three to six times worse than a bad influenza year, ten times worse than a normal influenza year. The people who die are near entirely the old, the co-morbid, and the immunocompromised. They die because they are suffering the damage and dysfunction of aging. Yet the societal conversation and the actions of policy makers ignore this.
There is ...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 31, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Of Interest Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, December 28th 2020
In conclusion, our study demonstrated that the molecular processes of aging are relatively subtle in their progress, and the aging process of every tissue depends on the tissue's specialized function and environment. Hence, individual gene or process alone cannot be described as the key of aging in the whole organism.
Mouse Age Matters: How Age Affects the Murine Plasma Metabolome
A large part of metabolomics research relies on experiments involving mouse models, which are usually 6 to 20 weeks of age. However, in this age range mice undergo dramatic developmental changes. Even small age differences may l...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 27, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
A Review of Senolytics Biotech Companies
Here I'll point out a very high level review of the present senolytics biotech companies. These companies are all quite young, focused on various means of selectively destroying the senescent cells that accumulate with age. Animal data from mice shows that these cells are an important contributing cause of aging and age-related disease, as clearing them reverses the progression many aspects of aging and age-related diseases, while also extending life span. Senescent cells exhibit the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), producing a mix of molecules that provoke chronic inflammation and tissue dysfunction. The ...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 22, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, November 30th 2020
We examined specific aspects of metabolism in male PolG+/mut mice at 6 and 12 months of age under three dietary conditions: normal chow (NC) feeding, high-fat feeding (HFD), and 24-hr starvation. We performed mitochondrial proteomics and assessed dynamics and quality control signaling in muscle and liver to determine whether mitochondria respond to mtDNA point mutations by altering morphology and turnover. In the current study, we observed that the accumulation of mtDNA point mutations failed to disrupt metabolic homeostasis and insulin action in male mice, but with aging, metabolic health was likely preserved by counterme...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 29, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Age-related macular degeneration: Early detection and timely treatment may help preserve vision
Age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) is the leading cause of blindness in adults over the age of 60. As its name implies, the condition primarily affects the macula, which is the region of the retina responsible for central vision. A person whose macula is impacted by retinal disease may develop difficulty with tasks such as reading and driving, but maintain good peripheral vision.
If you have ARMD, understanding the signs and symptoms, proper monitoring, early detection of advancing disease, and timely treatment are all key to preserving vision.
Stages of age-related macular degeneration
ARMD may be classified as early...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - November 24, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Anthony Joseph, MD Tags: Eye Health Source Type: blogs
NeuroD1 Gene Therapy in Mice Transforms Glial Scars into Functional Neural Tissue
Glial scars made up of activated astrocyte cells form following injury to nervous system tissue in mammals, and while protective in some ways, this scarring blocks functional regeneration. It is an important mechanism that limits the degree to which nerves and brain tissue can regenerate, and thus a target for the regenerative medicine community. Researchers here demonstrate a gene therapy approach that causes glial scars in the brain to regenerate into functional neural tissue. This line of work seems well worth keeping an eye on.
Injuries in the central nervous system (CNS) often causes neuronal loss and glial s...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 24, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
