Fight Aging! Newsletter, March 11th 2024
In conclusion, this Mendelian randomization study found that Streptococcus was causally associated with Bioage acceleration. Further randomized controlled trials are needed to investigate its role in the aging process. « Back to Top Considering the Mechanisms of Vascular Calcification https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2024/03/considering-the-mechanisms-of-vascular-calcification/ Harmful calcification of structures in the cardiovascular system proceeds alongside the development of the fatty lesions of atherosclerosis. Both disease processes are accelerated by chronic inflammation, but d...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 10, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs

Request for Startups in the Rejuvenation Biotechnology Space, 2024 Edition
Investors focused on funding biotechnology startups tend to exhibit herd behavior, much like investors everywhere these days. Funding is primarily deployed towards fads and popular trends, not necessarily towards what makes the most sense, even if sometimes the sensible manages to align with the popular. These days that means drug discovery platforms with a strong computational component and partial epigenetic reprogramming. But even in this environment, the path to true success is to work on important projects that few other people are touching. Be the champion for a potential solution to a tough, high-value, comparativel...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 8, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Investment Source Type: blogs

Fight Aging! Newsletter, February 26th 2024
In conclusion, mTORC1 signaling contributes to the ISC fate decision, enabling regional control of intestinal cell differentiation in response to nutrition. « Back to Top Reviewing the Development of Senotherapeutics to Treat Aging https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2024/02/reviewing-the-development-of-senotherapeutics-to-treat-aging/ Senescent cells accumulate with age and contribute meaningfully to chronic inflammation and degenerative aging. Destroying these cells produces rapid and sizable reversal of age-related diseases in mice, demonstrating that the presence of senescence cells ...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 25, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs

An Update on Kimer Med, Improving on the DRACO Antiviral Technology and Moving Towards the Clinic
The state of anti-viral therapies isn't that great, all things considered. Technology has not yet advanced to the point at which a viral infection can be simply shut down, as is the case for near all bacterial infections. The present anti-viral drugs are either vaccines (useful!) or merely shift the odds somewhat by interfering in some part of the viral life cycle, but nowhere near as effectively as desired. Many persistent viral infections are thought to contribute meaningfully to forms of age-related dysfunction, and there is too little that can be done about that at the present time. This landscape is one of the ...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 23, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Longevity Industry Source Type: blogs

Mid-term exam: Essay question
 Here is a historical graph of life expectancy at birth, for Homo sapiens on planet Earth.  The picture for the U.S. specifically is very similar, although the upturn started a bit earlier. (That mysterious dip around 1959 is the Chinese famine resulting from the so-called Great Leap Forward. In a graph of just the U.S., you would see a similar dip around 1918, from the influenza pandemic.) You can extend that horizontal tail back 6,000 years or more. In any given local area it might have gone up a bit in good times and down in times of plague or famine, but it basically stayed at around 30 years, never abov...
Source: Stayin' Alive - February 19, 2024 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs

The Problem of Original Antigenic Sin
by Gertrud U. Rey Once the innate immune system senses a never-seen-before pathogen as new, it engages elements of the adaptive immune response. These adaptive immunity elements coordinate over time to develop a response that protects from re-infection and disease upon a second exposure to the same pathogen. The second exposure will immediately lead to … The Problem of Original Antigenic Sin Read More » (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - January 4, 2024 Category: Virology Authors: Gertrud U. Rey Tags: Basic virology Gertrud Rey adaptive immunity antigenic imprinting antigenic seniority back-boosting H1N1 immunological imprinting influenza virus innate immunity negative interference original antigenic sin pandemic primary addic Source Type: blogs

What should you do if your child is diagnosed with bronchiolitis this cold and flu season?
The cold and flu season is already causing a surge of viral infections among children in doctors’ offices and emergency rooms. Health care providers are urging parents to brace themselves for what’s expected to be another season of COVID-19, influenza (flu), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and other common viruses all circulating at the same time. Read more… What should you do if your child is diagnosed with bronchiolitis this cold and flu season? originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - December 26, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Conditions Infectious Disease Pediatrics Source Type: blogs

Quiz: Sepsis Science
Bacteria are the most common triggers of sepsis.Credit: Mark Ellisman and Thomas Deerinck, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, University of California San Diego. At least 1.7 million adults in the United States develop a life-threatening condition called sepsis each year. Sepsis is an overwhelming or impaired whole-body immune response that’s most often caused by bacterial infections. However, it can also be caused by viral infections, such as COVID-19 or influenza; fungal infections; or other injuries, including physical trauma.​​ Anyone can get sepsis, but there’s a higher risk ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - September 13, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Injury and Illness Quiz Research Roundup Sepsis Source Type: blogs

Device for Rapid COVID-19 Breath Testing
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have developed a COVID-19 breathalyzer test. The technology requires someone to breathe into it just once or twice, and it can then provide an indication if the person is infected with SARS-CoV-2 in as little as one minute. The device could be very useful fo screening large numbers of people prior to access to an indoor event, for instance, or in community clinics to quickly determine if people are infected. Moreover, the technology could be adapted to detect other viruses, which may be useful for future outbreaks. The system involves blowing into a straw, which direc...
Source: Medgadget - September 7, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Diagnostics Medicine Public Health wustl WUSTLmed Source Type: blogs

Fight Aging! Newsletter, September 4th 2023
In conclusion, although the contribution of CRF to GrimAgeAccel and FitAgeAccel is relatively low compared to lifestyle-related factors such as smoking, the results suggest that the maintenance of CRF is associated with delayed biological ageing in older men. « Back to Top Release of Acetylcholine is Necessary for the Aging Brain to Compensate for a Lack of Neurogenesis https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2023/09/release-of-acetylcholine-is-necessary-for-the-aging-brain-to-compensate-for-a-lack-of-neurogenesis/ Neurogenesis is the process by which new neurons are created by neural stem c...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 3, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs

More Evidence for Vaccination to Reduce Alzheimer's Disease Risk
There is good evidence for the various forms of later life vaccination, such as for herpes zoster or influenza, to reduce the risk of later suffering Alzheimer's disease. One possibility is that people who take the time to obtain a vaccine tend to take better care of their health across the board. Another possibility is that vaccination produces a trained immunity effect that dampens age-related inflammation for a sustained period of time. It may also be the case that suffering from influenza, pneumonia, or similar infectious diseases causes sufficient additional inflammation to move the odds on suffering later neurodegene...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 28, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs

A man in his 70s with weakness and syncope
DiscussionBrugada Type 1 ECG changes are associated with sudden cardiac death (SCD) and the occurrence of ventricular dysrhythmias. Patients that develop a Type 1 pattern without any precipitating or provoking factors have a risk of SCD of 0.5-0.8% per year. In patients that only have this pattern induced by a sodium channel blocking agent have a lower rate of SCD (0 - 0.35% per year)[1]. Drugs that have been associated with Brugada ECG patterns include tricyclic antidepressants, anesthetics, cocaine, methadone, antihistamines, electrolyte derangements, and even tramadol. [2]. Our patient had a Brugada Type ...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - July 22, 2023 Category: Cardiology Authors: Pendell Source Type: blogs

Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 17th 2023
In conclusion, the longevity-associated genotype of FLT1 may confer increased lifespan by protecting against mortality risk posed by hypertension. We suggest that FLT1 expression in individuals with longevity genotype boosts vascular endothelial resilience mechanisms to counteract hypertension-related stress in vital organs and tissues. Resistance Exercise Slows the Onset of Pathology in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2023/07/resistance-exercise-slows-the-onset-of-pathology-in-a-mouse-model-of-alzheimers-disease/ With the caveat that mouse models of Alzheimer'...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 16, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs

App Converts Smartphone to Clinical Thermometer
Researchers at the University of Washington have developed an app that converts common smartphones into clinical thermometers. Spotting the signs of fever early could make a difference in providing early treatment or beginning a period of isolation to reduce the chance of disease transmission. This is particularly important for viral diseases, such as COVID-19. However, many people may not have ready access to a clinical thermometer, so simply downloading an app could makes it accessible for people to take their temperature. The app relies on data from temperature sensors in the phone that normally monitor the temperature ...
Source: Medgadget - July 14, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Diagnostics Emergency Medicine Public Health Telemedicine universityofwashington Source Type: blogs

Senolytic Treatment Fails to Improve Measures of the Immune Response to Influenza in Old Mice
At this point in the development of senolytic therapies to clear harmful, lingering senescent cells from aged tissues, it is more interesting to find an aspect of aging that isn't improved by removal of senescent cells than to continue adding to the long list of age-related conditions and dysfunctions that are meaningfully reversed by senescent cell clearance. Here, researchers show that measures of the immune response to influenza infection in mice are not improved followed treatment with the senolytic combination of dasatinib and quercetin. This is a perhaps surprising result, given the expectation based on evidence to d...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 12, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs