Lifeboat Foundation

Microglial cells are the maintenance workers of the central nervous system (CNS), protecting against pathogens and pruning damaged neurons to help the brain maintain homeostasis. Considered immune cells, microglia work to protect the brain from before it is fully formed through its lifetime, but they aren’t infallible. The cells can be primed early on to respond in certain ways, making the microglia’s clean-up efforts less efficient. As other cells age, they can complicate microglial function, making them less effective.

But the underlying mechanism of how microglial cells age and how their aging directly affects the brain is poorly understood—meaning that attempts to prevent or treat brain dysfunction may not be as effective as they could be, according to a multi-institutional collaboration led by Bo Peng and Yanxia Rao, both professors at Fudan University.

The team investigated how microglial cells change as they age in both male and female mice across their lifespans, finding what the researchers called “unexpected sex differences.” They also established a model to study aged microglial cells in a non-aged brain, revealing that aged-like microglia contribute to cognitive decline even in young mice. The researchers published their findings in Nature Aging.

In response to the increasing demand for medical services amid labor shortages and a rapidly aging population, Shanghai-based Fourier Intelligence is developing an innovative humanoid robot. The GR-1, as it is called, promises to transform healthcare facilities and offer vital assistance to the elderly.

Like many countries, China is confronting the challenge of an aging population. The number of individuals aged 60 and over is projected to rise from 280 million to over 400 million by 2035, according to estimates from the country’s National Health Commission. That’s more than the entire population of the United States projected for that year.

Continue reading “World’s first mass-produced humanoid robot wants to solve China’s aging population problem” »

Year 2020 Immortality in eyes achieved with Nad plus 😗😁😘.

Glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration are leading causes of irreversible blindness worldwide with significant health and societal burdens. To date, no clinical cures are available and treatments target only the manageable symptoms and risk factors (but do not remediate the underlying pathology of the disease). Both diseases are neurodegenerative in their pathology of the retina and as such many of the events that trigger cell dysfunction, degeneration, and eventual loss are due to mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, and oxidative stress. Here, we critically review how a decreased bioavailability of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD; a crucial metabolite in healthy and disease states) may underpin many of these aberrant mechanisms. We propose how exogenous sources of NAD may become a therapeutic standard for the treatment of these conditions.

A mathematical model shows how increased intricacy of cognitive tasks can break the mirror symmetry of the brain’s neural network.

The neural networks of animal brains are partly mirror symmetric, with asymmetries thought to be more common in more cognitively advanced species. This assumption stems from a long-standing theory that increased complexity of neural tasks can turn mirror-symmetric neural circuits into circuits existing in only one side of the brain. This hypothesis has now received support from a mathematical model developed by Luís Seoane at the National Center for Biotechnology in Spain [1]. The researcher’s findings could help explain how the brain’s architecture is shaped not only by cognitively demanding tasks but also by damage or aging.

A mirror-symmetric neural network is useful when controlling body parts that are themselves mirror symmetric, such as arms and legs. Moreover, the presence of duplicate circuits on each side of the brain can help increase computing accuracy and offer a replacement circuit if one becomes faulty. However, the redundancy created by such duplication can lead to increased energy consumption. This trade-off raises an important question: Does the optimal degree of mirror symmetry depend on the complexity of the cognitive tasks performed by the neural network?

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and their partners have unearthed new findings about healing and aging by studying a tiny sea creature capable of regenerating its entire body using just its mouth. They analyzed the RNA

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule similar to DNA that is essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes. Both are nucleic acids, but unlike DNA, RNA is single-stranded. An RNA strand has a backbone made of alternating sugar (ribose) and phosphate groups. Attached to each sugar is one of four bases—adenine (A), uracil (U), cytosine ©, or guanine (G). Different types of RNA exist in the cell: messenger RNA (mRNA), ribosomal RNA (rRNA), and transfer RNA (tRNA).

Microglia-related articles discussing influence of microglia on aging and age-related diseases, the impact of microglial dysregulation on neuroinflammation, the differences between true microglia and microglia-like cells, and more.

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Stella Davies asks a powerful question: If you could save the life of a child with 2 hours of your time-would you? Her talk is inspiring and encouraging. Depending on the kindness of strangers is shown throughout this talk. We have a profound impact on what we can do for each other even if we don’t know each other. Stella was born in Liverpool, England. She came to the USA in 1989, planning to stay for a year and learn more about bone marrow transplantation. Three weeks after arrival she met her American husband and has been in the US ever since. Stella is now the director of the bone marrow transplant program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

Stella Davies was born in Liverpool, England. She came to the USA in 1989, planning to stay for a year and learn more about bone marrow transplantation. Three weeks after arrival she met her American husband and has been in the US ever since. Stella is now the director of the bone marrow transplant program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. www.BeTheMatch.Org/join.

Continue reading “‘Immortality and transplanting the human stem cell’ | Stella Davies | TEDxCincinnati” »

Please attend our Virtual Realilty Ending Aging Forum!

This event will showcase the newest breakthroughs in rejuvenation biotechnologies happening at the SENS Research Foundation’s Research Center in Mountain View, CA, as well as the research funded at extramural labs.

The Forum will be hosted virtually through Meetaverse, a state-of-the-art Virtual Reality platform.

Continue reading “Ending Aging Forum 2023” »

Naked mole rats are rodents that are about the size of a mouse with a key difference, aside from having no fur — they’re extremely long-lived — reaching ages of around 40 years old. For comparison, lab mice live an average of about three and a half years. To explain their extensive lifespans, researchers have sought to pinpoint how naked mole rats evade the onset of age-related diseases like cancer. In doing so, they’ve identified a form of gelatinous substance called hyaluronan, which has anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties. Now, the question of whether the benefits of the naked mole rat’s abundant levels of this form of hyaluronan — called high molecular mass hyaluronic acid (HMM-HA) — can be exported to other species has recently drawn attention.

Published in Nature, Gorbunova and colleagues from the University of Rochester show that genetically modifying mice to harbor an enzyme that produces HMM-HA extends their lifespan. The researchers go on to show that increasing HMM-HA reduces the prevalence of cancer. Additionally, the nmrHAS2 gene improves the healthspan of mice by countering physiological dysfunction, as measured with a frailty score. These findings provide the first evidence that genes from long-lived species can be exported to other species, perhaps conferring benefits to humans one day.