Glucosamine Supplementation Correlates with Lower All Cause Mortality
An analysis of a large study population here shows that glucosamine supplementation results in about a 15% reduction in mortality, a sizable effect size in the context of what is known of the effects of lifestyle choices and supplementation on aging. Glucosamine is used as an anti-inflammatory intervention, but there is at best only mixed evidence for it to actually do much good as a treatment for specific inflammatory conditions such as arthritis. It is nonetheless widely used, hence the ability to see outcomes in sizable group of people. The effect on mortality is certainly an interesting outcome, given the lack of robus...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 28, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
A Genomic Search for Longevity-Associated Genes Points to Iron Metabolism in Human Aging
As a general rule, one should be skeptical about any and all single studies that identify longevity-associated genes from human data. Typically the results cannot be replicated in different study populations, and the effect sizes are in any case small. Identified gene variants confer only small changes in the odds of reaching a given age. Only a handful of gene variants show up reliably in multiple studies carried out in different human populations. So, unfortunately, however interesting or novel the data in a new study, such as the association of longevity with maintenance of normal iron levels noted in today's open acces...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 27, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 20th 2020
This study was the first to demonstrate a causal relationship between glial senescence and neurodegeneration. In this study, accumulations of senescent astrocytes and microglia were found in tau-associated neurodegenerative disease model mice. Elimination of these senescent cells via a genetic approach can reduce tau deposition and prevent the degeneration of cortical and hippocampal neurons.
Most recently, it was shown that clearance of senescent oligodendrocyte progenitor cells in AD model mice with senolytic agents could lessen the Aβ plaque load, reduce neuroinflammation, and ameliorate cognitive deficits. This...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 19, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
In Rats, Navitoclax Removes Senescent Chondrocytes that Contribute to Osteoarthritis
In this study, we examined the ability of the senolytic drug ABT263 to clear SnCs and further evaluated the therapeutic effect of ABT263 on post-traumatic osteoarthritis. A destabilization of the medial meniscus (DMM) rat model was established for in vivo experiments. We found that ABT263 reduced the expression of inflammatory cytokines and promoted cartilage matrix aggregation by inducing SnC apoptosis. Moreover, osteoarthritis pathological changes in the cartilage and subchondral bone in post-traumatic osteoarthritis rat were alleviated by ABT263 intra-articular injection. These results demonstrated that ABT263 not only ...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 15, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Reviewing the Cellular Senescence of Astrocytes in Alzheimer's Disease
This study was the first to demonstrate a causal relationship between glial senescence and neurodegeneration. In this study, accumulations of senescent astrocytes and microglia were found in tau-associated neurodegenerative disease model mice. Elimination of these senescent cells via a genetic approach can reduce tau deposition and prevent the degeneration of cortical and hippocampal neurons.
Most recently, it was shown that clearance of senescent oligodendrocyte progenitor cells in AD model mice with senolytic agents could lessen the Aβ plaque load, reduce neuroinflammation, and ameliorate cognitive deficits. This...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 13, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, June 29th 2020
In conclusion, metabolomics is a promising approach for the assessment of biological age and appears complementary to established epigenetic clocks.
Sedentary Behavior Raises the Risk of Cancer Mortality
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2020/06/sedentary-behavior-raises-the-risk-of-cancer-mortality/
Living a sedentary lifestyle is known to be harmful to long term health, raising the risk of age-related disease and mortality. Researchers here show that a sedentary life specifically increases cancer mortality, and does so independently of other factors. This is one of many, many reasons to maintain a r...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 28, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Demonstrating a Senolytic Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell Therapy
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies target specific surface features on other cells by providing T cells with a way to recognize that feature - the CAR. T cells so equipped will selectively destroy other cells with the target surface feature. To produce a CAR T cell therapy, a patient's T cells are taken, genetically engineered to introduce the CAR, expanded, and then reintroduced. This is presently used as a form of cancer therapy. Given a surface feature sufficiently specific to senescent cells, CAR T cell immunotherapy can be turned into a senolytic treatment, however. Senescent cell accumulation is one of ...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 25, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Reviewing the Role of the Immune System in Clearance of Senescent Cells
Cells in the body become senescent constantly, in response to reaching the Hayflick limit on replication, to DNA damage, to a toxic local environment, to injury. A senescent cell grows large, ceases replication, and secretes a potent mix of signals, the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). The SASP rouses the immune system into an inflammatory state, disrupts tissue maintenance and structure, and encourages other cells to also become senescent. In the short term this is a necessary part of wound healing and cancer suppression. If maintained for the long term, the SASP becomes very harmful, however.
Near...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 22, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, June 15th 2020
In this study, we used markers to monitor the formation of SGs in Caenorhabditis elegans. We found that, in addition to acute heat stress, SG formation could also be triggered by dietary changes, such as starvation and dietary restriction (DR). We found that HSF-1 is required for the SG formation in response to acute heat shock and starvation but not DR, whereas the AMPK-eEF2K signaling is required for starvation and DR-induced SG formation but not heat shock. Moreover, our data suggest that this AMPK-eEF2K pathway-mediated SG formation is required for lifespan extension by DR, but dispensable for the longevity by reduced ...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 14, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Greater MMP-2 Levels in a Population of Long-Lived Individuals
A great many research groups are engaged in the search for distinct biochemistry in extremely old humans. How do older individuals survive where their peers did not, and can any of the answer to that question be turned into useful therapies? My suspicion is that there are no useful therapies to be found in the genetics and metabolism of exceptional human longevity: these people are still suffering a high burden of damage, and are greatly diminished in capacity. The differences they carry do not tend to swing the odds far, and epidemiological studies suggest that individual variation in genetics and metabolism is a tiny con...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 11, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 25th 2020
In conclusion, our results suggest a previously unknown mechanism whereby the canonical NF-κB cascade and a mitochondrial fission pathway interdependently regulate endothelial inflammation.
Lin28 as a Target for Nerve Regeneration
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2020/05/lin28-as-a-target-for-nerve-regeneration/
Researchers here show that the gene Lin28 regulates axon regrowth. In mice, raised levels of Lin28 produce greater regeneration of nerve injuries. Past research has investigated Lin28 from the standpoint of producing a more general improvement in regenerative capacity. It improves mitochondr...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 24, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Some healthcare can safely wait (and some can ’t)
Among the many remarkable things that have happened since the COVID-19 pandemic began is that a lot of our usual medical care has simply stopped.
According to a recent study, routine testing for cervical cancer, cholesterol, and blood sugar is down nearly 70% across the country. Elective surgeries, routine physical examinations, and other screening tests have been canceled or rescheduled so that people can stay at home, avoid being around others who might be sick, and avoid unknowingly spreading the virus. Many clinics, hospitals, and doctors’ offices have been closed for weeks except for emergencies. Even if these facil...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 20, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Health Health care Healthy Aging Men's Health Women's Health Source Type: blogs
Follistatin Gene Therapy Doubles Muscle Mass in Mice
Follistatin is an inhibitor of myostatin. Blocking myostatin activity enhances muscle growth, with accompanying beneficial side-effects such as a loss of excess fat tissue. This is well proven. There are a good number of animal lineages (mice, dogs, cows, and so forth) resulting from natural or engineered myostatin loss of function mutations, and even a few well-muscled human individuals with similar mutations. A number of groups are at various stages in the development of therapies to either upregulate follistatin or inhibit myostatin. The latter is further along in the formal regulatory process: human trials have been co...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 18, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 18th 2020
This study provides direct evidence for the contribution of gut microbiota to the cognitive decline during normal aging and suggests that restoring microbiota homeostasis in the elderly may improve cognitive function.
On Nutraceutical Senolytics
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2020/05/on-nutraceutical-senolytics/
Nutraceuticals are compounds derived from foods, usually plants. In principle one can find useful therapies in the natural world, taking the approach of identifying interesting molecules and refining them to a greater potency than naturally occurs in order to produce a usefully large therap...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 17, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
On Nutraceutical Senolytics
Nutraceuticals are compounds derived from foods, usually plants. In principle one can find useful therapies in the natural world, taking the approach of identifying interesting molecules and refining them to a greater potency than naturally occurs in order to produce a usefully large therapeutic effect. Unfortunately, in practice the nutraceutical industry is a largely a lazy one, in which entrepreneurs take advantage of a short path to market, and a lack of interest among consumers in whether or not products actually work, in order to repackage cheap ingredients into expensive brands that have minimal, unreliable, or even...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 15, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
