While computer technology continues to accelerate, human beings still have to contend with age-related disease and death. Here’s some of what’s been done to support longer, healthier lives in April.
A Lifespan.io Project Bears Fruit
Results of a Crowdfunded One-Year Human Rapamycin Trial: In Aging, Dr. Sajid Zalzala and his team have published the results of Participatory Evaluation of Aging with Rapamycin for Longevity (PEARL), a randomized, controlled human clinical trial that was crowdfunded by Lifespan.io.
Research Roundup
Scientists Discover a New Mitigator of Senescence: Working with flies, mice, and human cells, scientists have demonstrated that a highly conserved protein can modulate cellular senescence, potentially opening a new avenue for future therapies.
Activation of Silent X Chromosome Might Improve Cognition: Using a mouse model, researchers from UCSF have found that the genes that become activated on the silent X chromosome might explain some sex-dependent differences in cognitive abilities during aging.
Extracellular Vesicles Restore Some Heart Function to Mice: Publishing in Stem Cell Research & Therapy, researchers have found that small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) derived from young mice alleviate heart dysfunction in older mice.
Reprogramming Epigenetics to Fight Back Pain: A new paper published in the Nature journal Bone Research has found that reprogramming the epigenetics of spinal disc cells reduces senescence and alleviates pain in a rat model.
Fasting Affects the Immune System via the Brain: A new study has found that the immune remodeling associated with fasting can be recapitulated by activating a subset of neurons in the hypothalamus. The findings could be important in the context of fasting mimicking, metabolic disorders, and cancer.
Dietary Patterns Associated With Healthy Aging: A recent study investigated the impact of eight different mid-life dietary patterns on the odds of healthy aging, including cognitive, mental, and physical health.
How Exercise May Fight Parkinson’s Disease: Experimenting on rodents, researchers have found a pathway through which exercise could fight Parkinson’s disease and a molecule that might recapitulate this effect.
Neurons Hidden to Immune Cells Improve Parkinson’s in Rats: By tweaking genes used by placental and cancerous cells to evade immune detection, scientists have created non-immunogenic neuronal grafts that may help Parkinson’s patients.
Senolytics Decrease Low Back Pain in Mice: Researchers have tested a synthetic and natural senolytic combination of RG-7112 and o-vanillin in mice with early-onset low back pain and disc degeneration. They observed reduced signs of back pain; decreased senescence and disc degeneration; and improvements in vertebral bone quality.
Researchers Use Big Data to Find a Longevity Target: Researchers publishing in Aging Cell have used large databases to discover a causal relationship between multiple genes and overall mortality risk, finding a new potential target in the process.
A Senescence-Related Target for Blood Vessel Formation: In Aging Cell, researchers have linked macrophage senescence to the failure of new blood vessel formation, finding a key target that might make it easier to treat arterial clogs.
Researchers Fight Some Mutations by Targeting Mitochondria: Clonal hematopoiesis, a condition linked to numerous age-related disorders, can be caused by overachieving mitochondria, and it may be susceptible to drugs such as MitoQ and metformin.
Technology Use Associated With Reduced Cognitive Impairment: New research suggests that digital technologies provide beneficial effects on cognition in middle-aged and older adults who did not grow up with such technologies.
How Fisetin May Fight Blood Vessel Calcification: In Aging, researchers have described how the well-known supplement fisetin may fight calcification of the blood vessels, seeing significant successes in both cellular and mouse models.
OS-01 Peptide Tested in Skin Aging Pilot Study: A recent study featured in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology has analyzed the impact of a topical product containing OS-01. This is a senotherapeutic peptide that targets senescence, affecting the skin’s barrier function and multiple aging biomarkers.
How Extracellular Vesicles From Stem Cells Fight Senescence: Researchers have discovered a cocktail of micro-RNA strands that make some extracellular vesicles (EVs) effective in reducing cellular senescence and published their findings in Aging Cell.
Immune Resilience Is a Strong Determinant of Mortality: A new study defines the concept of immune resilience and positions it as a central determinant of aging trajectories, linking it to survival, inflammation control, and the body’s ability to withstand stress.
Impact of Butter and Plant-Based Oils on Mortality: A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that a higher intake of butter is associated with increased mortality while a higher intake of plant-based oils is associated with reduced mortality.
Dietary methionine restriction started late in life promotes healthy aging in a sex-specific manner: The observed benefits provide a translational rationale to develop methionine restriction mimetics as an anti-aging intervention.
Targeting Senescence with Apigenin Improves Chemotherapeutic Efficacy and Ameliorates Age-Related Conditions in Mice: This study demonstrates the feasibility of exploiting a natural compound with senomorphic capacity to achieve geroprotective effects by modulating the SASP.
Niclosamide extends health span and reduces frailty by ameliorating mTORC1 hyperactivation in aging models: It extended lifespan and improved frailty-related phenotypes in C. elegans and effectively ameliorated frailty in aging mice, particularly in muscle aging.
Associations between five indicators of epigenetic age acceleration and all-cause and cause-specific mortality among US adults aged 50 years and older: AAGrimAge and AAGrimAge2 outperformed AAHorvathAge, AAHannumAge and AAPhenoAge in predicting mortality risk, and the association pattern was positive.
Maximum lifespan and brain size in mammals are associated with gene family size expansion related to immune system functions: The researchers conducted a genome-wide analysis not restricted to specific functional gene categories and analyzed the overlap between MLSP-associated genes identified in this study with gene sets previously associated with human longevity and molecular processes relevant to aging and longevity evolution.
AI-Driven Identification of Exceptionally Efficacious Polypharmacological Compounds That Extend the Lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans: Rationally designing polypharmacological compounds enables the design of geroprotectors with exceptional efficacy.
Life-long microbiome rejuvenation improves intestinal barrier function and inflammaging in mice: Life-long and repeated transfer of microbiota material from young mice improved age-related processes, including coordinative ability (rotarod), intestinal permeability, and both metabolic and inflammatory profiles mainly of macrophages but also of other immune cells.
Social relationships and immune aging in early midlife: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health: Higher quantity and quality of social relationships may help protect against immune aging, particularly in the CD4+ T cell compartment, prior to midlife.
Compression of morbidity by interventions that steepen the survival curve: A subset of interventions that extend lifespan and steepen the shape of the survival curve are predicted to compress the relative sickspan.
From geroscience to precision geromedicine: Understanding and managing aging: It is anticipated that, pending results from randomized clinical trials and regulatory approval, gerotherapeutics will be tailored to each person based on their genetic profile, high-dimensional omics-based biomarkers of aging, clinical and digital biomarkers of aging, psychosocial profile, and past or present exposures.
Age reprogramming: Innovations and ethical considerations for prolonged longevity: With interdisciplinary collaboration, robust ethical frameworks, and scalable technological innovations, cellular rejuvenation therapies have the potential to transform healthcare.
Evaluation of exploratory fluid biomarkers from a phase 1 senolytic trial in mild Alzheimer’s disease: The levels and treatment responses of the analytes identified here may help inform trial design and outcomes for senolytic studies.
News Nuggets
The mTOR Inhibitors Lifespan Project Enters Next Phase: Ora Biomedical, in partnership with Rapamycin Longevity Lab, announces the successful funding of the first subproject under its ambitious initiative to conduct a rapid lifespan analysis of 601 mTOR inhibitors in roundworms. With $50,000 secured, Ora Biomedical will now commence the next phase of the first subproject.
World’s First Pig-to-Human Liver Transplant: Chinese scientists announced the world’s first successful transplantation of a genetically modified pig liver into a brain-dead patient. This represents an important step towards routinely using pig organs to save human lives.
Coming Up
The Aging Code Summit and Pitch Fest: Longevity Global, Mindvyne, and 3cubed.ai announced that they will be partnering to co-host the Aging Code Summit and Pitch Fest, a two-day event on June 11th and 12th that brings the latest advancements in aging research to Boston and strengthens the East Coast longevity ecosystem.
View the article at lifespan.io
