Summary: Cholesterol drug alirocumab was linked to a 15% lower risk of dying in a new study released Saturday. [This article first appeared on LongevityFacts. Author: Brady Hartman. ]

The cholesterol-lowering drug alirocumab was linked to a 15% lower risk of death, and an equivalent reduction of cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke, according to a new study.

It’s the first time a cholesterol-lowering drug has reduced deaths since statins such as Crestor and Lipitor came out decades ago.

Summary: Vitamin D linked to a 20% lower risk of cancer in an extensive 16-year study of over 33,000 people published yesterday in a top journal. [This article first appeared on LongevityFacts. Author: Brady Hartman. ]

Higher levels of vitamin D may be connected to a lower risk of developing cancer, concludes an extensive study of Japanese adults published yesterday.

The scientists say their findings support the theory that vitamin D might help protect against some cancers.

Summary: In a medical first, UT Dallas researchers just found a way to paint a bullseye target on cancer stem cells, the source of tumor metastases which spread through the body to cause 90% of all cancer deaths. [This article first appeared on LongevityFacts. Author: Brady Hartman. ]

Researchers with the University of Texas at Dallas just found a way to isolate and tag cancer stem cells, the chief culprit involved in cancer spreading to other parts of the body – the cause of 90% of all cancer deaths.

While they haven’t developed drugs that eliminate these aggressive cancer cells, they can paint a bright bullseye on their elusive target, making it easier to kill cancer stem cells.

Utilizing induced pluripotent stem cells for regenerative medicine.

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The #heart is the first organ to develop in the womb and the first cause of concern for many parents.

For expecting mothers, the excitement of pregnancy is often offset by anxiety over medication they require. Parents and doctors often have to consider the mother’s health as well as the potential risk regarding how medication could affect their baby. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires certain drugs to be labeled with pregnancy exposure and risk. Some drugs are labeled to show that testing on animals has failed to demonstrate a risk but there are no adequate and well-controlled studies of pregnant women.

“Some drugs are difficult for doctors to prescribe to pregnant women because they don’t know the embryo toxicity, how does that effect fetal development,” said biomedical engineering Professor Zhen Ma. “They don’t have the clinical outcome based on human study.”

All Ph.D.s invited smile

Details: https://www.undoing-aging.org/news/request-for-proposal-anno…technology

Parte 3 of the SENS Research Foundation interview by LEAF is out!

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Welcome to part three and the final part of our SENS Undoing Aging 2018 interview; we have a few more scientific questions today for Aubrey and his team as well as questions about future developments and taking new therapies to market.

Dr. de Grey, has your position on the relevance of telomere attrition changed since you first devised SENS, especially in the light of the recent results with fibrosis and your involvement with AgeX?

Aubrey: No. Let’s start with the big picture. Neither I nor anyone sensible has ever suggested that telomere attrition has no functional effects in aging: telomere attrition causes cells to become senescent and runs down the proliferative capacity of stem cells, amongst other things. Nor have I suggested that there wouldn’t be some short-term health benefits to activating telomerase or telomerase gene therapy in aging animals or animal models of age-related disease (or even their human equivalents). Indeed, there was plenty of animal data to support this long before the recent results with a mouse model of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF)[1].