Inflammation, thought to be a driver of age-related disease, does not worsen with age in some Indigenous communities.
Category: life extension – Page 17
Scientists reprogram ant behavior using brain molecules
Leafcutter ants live in highly organized colonies where every ant has a job, and now researchers can flip those jobs like a switch. By manipulating just two neuropeptides, scientists can turn defenders into nurses or gardeners into leaf harvesters. These same molecular signals echo in naked mole-rats, revealing a deep evolutionary link in how complex societies function, even across species. The study also teases out a possible connection to insulin and longevity, hinting at new frontiers in understanding human behavior and lifespan.
Aging-related inflammation is not universal across human populations, new study finds
Inflammation, long considered a hallmark of aging, may not be a universal human experience, according to a new study from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The research suggests that “inflammaging”—chronic, low-grade inflammation associated with aging—appears to be a byproduct of industrialized lifestyles and varies significantly across global populations.
The findings are published in Nature Aging.
Researchers analyzed data from four populations: two industrialized groups—the Italian InCHIANTI study and the Singapore Longitudinal Aging Study (SLAS)—and two Indigenous, non-industrialized populations—the Tsimane of the Bolivian Amazon and the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia. While the inflammaging signature was similar between the two industrialized populations, it did not hold in the Indigenous groups, where inflammation levels were largely driven by infection rather than age.
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Calorie restriction mimetics against aging and inflammation
Geroprotectors, a class of compounds that ameliorate molecular, cellular, or physiological aging-related alterations, have garnered significant attention in the quest to promote healthy aging and extend the human health span. Among these, Calorie Restriction Mimetics (CRMs) have emerged as promising candidates due to their potential to mimic the benefits of calorie restriction, a dietary approach involving reduced calorie intake without malnutrition. Prospective CRMs may include biguanides (metformin and aminoguanidine), which exert effects on the insulin signaling pathway; rapamycin, which interacts with mTOR signaling pathways; and stilbenes (resveratrol), which influences stress signaling pathways and promotes the activation of AMPK, impacting mitochondrial metabolism in addition to the activity of FOXO and sirtuin.
Muscle in Space Sheds Light on Ageing-Related Muscle Loss
Sarcopenia, which is a progressive and extensive decline in muscle mass and strength, is common with aging and estimated to affect up to 50% of people aged 80 and older. It can lead to disability and injuries from falls and is associated with a lower quality of life and an increased mortality. Apart from lifestyle changes, there is no current clinical treatment for sarcopenia.
Space flight with the associated absence of gravity and limited strain on muscles causes muscle weakness, a prominent feature of sarcopenia, within a short period of time, providing a time lapse view on age-related atrophy-associated changes in the muscle. This relatively short window of time in space provides a microgravity model for muscular aging and opens opportunities for studying sarcopenia, which normally takes decades to develop in patients on earth.
To understand the changes of muscle in microgravity, Siobhan Malany, Maddalena Parafati, and their team from the University of Florida, USA, engineered skeletal muscle microtissues from donor biopsies and launched them to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX CRS-25. Their findings were published today in Stem Cell Reports. The microtissues were taken from both young, active donors and from aged, sedentary donors and cultured in an automated mini lab, which besides regular feeding and monitoring of cultures also enabled electrical stimulation to simulate exercise. On earth, the contraction strength of microtissues from young, active individuals was almost twice as much as the strength of tissues from older, sedentary individuals. After only two weeks in space, muscle strength trended to decline in the young tissues and was now more comparable to the strength of old tissues. A similar trend was seen for the muscle protein content, which was higher in young microtissues on earth compared to old microtissues but decreased in microgravity to levels measured in old tissues. Further, space flight changed gene expression, particularly in the younger microtissues and disturbed cellular processes related to normal muscle function. Interestingly, electrical stimulation could mitigate these changes in gene expression to some extent.
A potential replacement for bone marrow sampling: New blood test may detect leukemia risk
What if a blood test could reveal the pace of our aging—and the diseases that may lie ahead? The labs of Profs. Liran Shlush and Amos Tanay at the Weizmann Institute of Science have been conducting in-depth studies into the biology of blood to better understand the aging process and why some people become more susceptible to disease over the years.
Their research teams, made up of physicians, biologists and data scientists, have been tracking changes in the blood-forming stem cells, including the emergence of genetic changes in these cells in about one-third of people over the age of 40. These changes not only increase the risk of blood cancers such as leukemia, but have also been linked to heart disease, diabetes and other age-related conditions.
In a new study published today in Nature Medicine, Shlush and Tanay present findings that may lead to an innovative blood test for detecting a person’s risk of developing leukemia. This test may potentially replace the invasive diagnostic procedure of bone marrow sampling.
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