DNA G-Quadruplexes in Epigenetic Cell Aging
Researchers here describe a G-quadruplex-related mechanism operating across diverse species that contributes to epigenetic change following cell replication, leading to the Hayflick limit on replication and subsequent cell death or cell senescence. G-quadruplexes form in telomeric regions at the ends of chromosomes, and their contributions to genomic structure, epigenetics, and aging are far from fully understood.
Insofar as the mechanism described in this paper is operating in organismal aging, it is worth bearing in mind that aging is accompanied by a reduction in stem cell activity, meaning a reduced supply of re...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 18, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
The Skin Microbiome and Aging of Skin
To what degree does the skin microbiome contribute to the aging of skin? This is an interesting question, but there is very little research on this topic. A growing body of work on the role of the gut microbiome in degenerative aging is leading to a greater interest in examining the microbial populations elsewhere in and on the body, however. Here, researchers note correlations between microbial populations on the skin and specific aspects of skin aging. The direct of causation is still to be determined, but it is reasonable to think that an aged skin changes in ways that might make it more or less hospitable for specific ...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 18, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
The Inflammasome as a Target for the Next Generation of Anti-Inflammatory Therapies
With advancing age, a wide range of mechanisms act to provoke the immune system into a state of constant inflammatory signaling and activation. Age-related mitochondrial dysfunction leads to mislocalized mitochondrial DNA fragments that trigger the cGAS-STING pathway to provoke inflammation. Senescent cells produce pro-inflammatory signaling, and their numbers increase with age. Visceral fat tissue produces signaling similar that resulting from infected cells. The increased presence of protein aggregates aggravates immune cells inside and outside of the brain. And so forth. Given all of this, actually fixing the issue of a...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 17, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Research Organism Superheroes: Fruit Flies
Credit: iStock.
Those pesky little bugs flying around the overripe bananas in your kitchen may hold the key to understanding something new about how our bodies work. That’s right, the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) is a widely used research organism in genetics because of its superpower of reproducing quickly with similar genes to people.
Researchers have been studying fruit flies for over a century for many reasons. First, they’re easy to please—just keep them at room temperature and feed them corn meal, sugar, and yeast (or those bananas on your counter!). Second, they reproduce more quickly and have shor...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - January 17, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: STEM Education Tools and Techniques Cool Creatures Research Organisms Source Type: blogs
Ppp1r17 Upregulation in the Hypothalamus Slows the Aging of Metabolism in Mice
Researchers here describe a specific issue in the aging of metabolism connected to the activity of Ppp1r17 in the hypothalamus in the brain. This affects the sympathetic nervous system, leading to reduced innervation of fat tissue, which in turn negatively affects many tissues via altered availability of circulating nutrients, signal molecules, and the like. The researchers note a few points at which they can intervene to stop this decline, either Ppp1r17 in the brain, or the circulating molecule eNAMPT released by fat cells. The effect size on life span in mice is modest, and there is the remaining question of why this de...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 17, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Suppressing Inflammatory Activity of Supporting Cells in the Brain as a Treatment for ALS
Constant, unresolved inflammatory behavior in the supporting cells of the brain is implicated in the pathology of diverse neurodegenerative conditions. Here, researchers find that dampening this inflammation can help restore function in animal models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This joins many other conceptually similar demonstrations conducted in the laboratory for a range of different neurodegenerative diseases. It remains to be seen as to how well these anti-inflammatory strategies will perform in human clinical trials.
ALS is caused by the loss of upper motor neurons, located in the brain, and lowe...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 17, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
The Flavonoid 4,4 ′-dimethoxychalcone is Senolytic
In this study, we found that DMC reduced the SASP level in senescent cells. Furthermore, senescent cells enter irreversible cell cycle arrest, which involves the activation of p53/p21 and Rb/p16. In this study we found that the expression levels of p21 and p16 were decreased after DMC treatment. The downregulation of p21 may be attributed to the decrease of p53. In this study, we found that the mRNA level of p53 was reduced after DMC treatment.
Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent cell death process, which is accompanied by iron accumulation. Our previous study reported an important role of FECH, an enzyme inserts ferro...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 16, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
A Proteomic Model for Five Subtypes of Alzheimer's Disease
There has been some work in recent years aimed at distinguishing subtypes of Alzheimer's disease that may respond quite differently to therapies. How much of the poor results in clinical trials is a matter of aiming too broadly, at patients who cannot respond well to a specific therapy? Of late, this attempt at categorization has focused on proteomic analyses of patient samples. Here find a paper covering results that were discussed late last year, in which researchers propose that there are five important subtypes of Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is heterogenous at the molecular level. Understandi...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 16, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
A Role for the Gut Microbiome in the Aging of the Ovaries
As is the case for the thymus, aging and loss of function in the ovaries is interesting for (a) occurring at an accelerated pace relative to the rest of the body, and (b) producing meaningful downstream consequences in later life. What causes this comparatively early loss of function? Here, researchers look at changes in the balance of microbial populations in the gut microbiome as a contributing factor. The gut microbiome also shows age-related changes comparatively early in adult life, in which pro-inflammatory microbes expand in number whilst those producing beneficial metabolites decline in number.
Altered com...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 16, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Flagellin Immunization Modestly Extends Life Span After Late-Life Administration in Mice
The immune system recognizes flagellin as foreign. Flagellin is the protein found in flagellae, the whip-like structures that bacteria use to move around. Attacking and destroying these bacteria is very much a part of the immune system's portfolio of normal activities. Thus immunization with flagellin provokes the immune system into greater activity and responsiveness in the short term, and it has been tested in humans as a vaccine adjuvant, intended to make the immune system respond more effectively to the vaccine delivered alongside flagellin. Interestingly, flagellin immunization also makes the immune system clear out h...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 15, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Longevity-Inducing Interventions Change Extracellular Matrix Dynamics in Nematode Worms
How exactly the extracellular matrix is involved in degenerative aging is a topic that remains understudied in comparison to the role of cellular biochemistry in aging. Clearly the matrix changes with age, such as by becoming less elastic, but a deeper understanding of the processes involved is a work in progress. Researchers here report on an investigation of age-related changes in the extracellular matrix, and how those changes are altered by interventions that slow aging. They worked with short-lived nematode worms, the starting point for a great deal of research into the mechanisms of aging, and found some interesting ...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 15, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Evidence for the Unfolded Protein Response to be Involved in Age-Related Deafness
Researchers have found that deafness-associated gene TMTC4 causes pathology via an excessive increase in the unfolded protein response in sensory hair cells of the inner ear, and loud noise does much the same. This suggests that inhibition of the unfolded protein response in these cells might be a way to slow loss of hearing capacity, or protect against the effects of loud noise and drugs that can harm hair cells. Still, this isn't a path to restoration of hearing capacity. That would require some way to replace lost hair cells and their connections to the brain.
Mutations to the TMTC4 gene trigger a molecular dom...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 15, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 15th 2024
In conclusion, FMD cycles have high potential to be effective in increasing the toxicity of a range of therapies against ALL and other blood cancers and should be tested in randomized clinical trials, especially in combination with immunotherapy and low toxicity cancer therapies.
In summary, we present a new strategy for improving leukemia treatment by combining FMD with chemotherapy to promote the killing of ALL cells in part by an immune-dependent mechanism. Fasting/FMD has been shown to reduce chemotherapy-associated toxicity in pre-clinical and clinical studies and thus represents a safe and potentially effectiv...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 14, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Continued Assessment of the Fasting Mimicking Diet as an Adjuvant Cancer Therapy
In conclusion, FMD cycles have high potential to be effective in increasing the toxicity of a range of therapies against ALL and other blood cancers and should be tested in randomized clinical trials, especially in combination with immunotherapy and low toxicity cancer therapies.
In summary, we present a new strategy for improving leukemia treatment by combining FMD with chemotherapy to promote the killing of ALL cells in part by an immune-dependent mechanism. Fasting/FMD has been shown to reduce chemotherapy-associated toxicity in pre-clinical and clinical studies and thus represents a safe and potentially effectiv...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 12, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Reviewing the Prospects for Dentin Regeneration
The regrowth of teeth - and the components of teeth, such as dental pulp, dentin, and enamel, that do not naturally exhibit sufficient regenerative capacity to address damage - has been a goal for researchers for some years now. Inroads have been made, but the research community is still some years from being able to sufficiently control the regrowth of entire teeth to produce more than technology demonstrations. Meanwhile, perhaps more meaningful advances have been made towards provoking the regeneration of damaged teeth in situ, finding ways to program cells in and around teeth into more regenerative modes of behavior.
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Source: Fight Aging! - January 12, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
