Aging & Longevity

Organ function declines with age, and large-scale transcriptomic analyses have highlighted differential aging trajectories across tissues. The mechanism underlying shared and organ-selective functional changes across the lifespan, however, still remains poorly understood. Given the central role of mitochondria in powering cellular processes needed to maintain tissue health, we therefore undertook a systematic assessment of respiratory activity across 33 different tissues in young (2.5 months)...

Measuring mitochondrial respiration in frozen tissue samples provides the first comprehensive atlas of how aging affects mitochondrial function in mice.

The aging population faces a gradual decline in physical and mental capacities, with an increased risk of liver cirrhosis and chronic liver diseases leading to hepatic encephalopathy (HE). The intertwining of physiological manifestations of aging with the pathophysiology of HE significantly impairs cognitive ability, reduces quality of life, and increases mortality. Hence, effective therapeutic intervention is imperative. The present study investigated the impact of minimal HE (MHE) on cognitive...

Cardiomyocyte senescence plays a crucial role in the pathophysiology of age-related cardiovascular disease. Senescent cells with impaired contractility, mitochondrial dysfunction, and hypertrophic growth accumulate in the heart during aging, contributing to cardiac dysfunction and remodeling. Mitochondrial dynamics is altered in aging cells, leading to changes in their function and morphology. Such rearrangements can affect the spatially restricted region of the mitochondrial membrane that...

We fit ongoing 40+-year mark-recapture databases from the thriving southern right whale (SRW), Eubalaena australis, and highly endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW), Eubalaena glacialis, to candidate survival models to estimate their life spans. Median life span for SRW was 73.4 years, with 10% of individuals surviving past 131.8 years. NARW life spans were likely anthropogenically shortened, with a median life span of just 22.3 years, and 10% of individuals living past 47.2 years. In the...

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that community-based physical and social activity interventions targeting frailty may be acceptable, feasible and useful. Further work is needed to investigate the impact of such programmes on health and service utilisation. Efforts should be targeted at improving the potential for long-term sustainability of programmes and their impacts.

CONCLUSIONS: This comprehensive assessment of the differentials in disease burden among older persons across age, sex and states of India, and the gaps identified in the service utilisation data capture by age and sex for the older persons in the national health programs can provide crucial inputs for strengthening the on-going public health policy and programmatic efforts aimed at improving the health and well-being of the growing older population in India.

The coenzyme NAD^(+) is consumed by signalling enzymes, including poly-ADP-ribosyltransferases (PARPs) and sirtuins. Ageing is associated with a decrease in cellular NAD^(+) levels, but how cells cope with persistently decreased NAD^(+) concentrations is unclear. Here, we show that subcellular NAD^(+) pools are interconnected, with mitochondria acting as a rheostat to maintain NAD^(+) levels upon excessive consumption. To evoke chronic, compartment-specific overconsumption of NAD^(+), we...

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) offer valuable diagnostic and prognostic insights for cardiovascular (CV) diseases, but the influence of age-related chronic inflammation ("inflammaging") and sex differences on EV profiles linked to CV risk remains unclear. This study aimed to use EV profiling to predict age and stratify patients by CV risk. We developed an EVaging index by analyzing surface antigen profiles of serum EVs from 625 participants, aged 20 to 94 years, across varying CV risk groups. The...

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The development of anti-aging drugs is challenged by both the apparent complexity of the physiological mechanisms involved in aging and the likelihood that many of these mechanisms remain unknown. As a consequence, the development of anti-aging compounds based on the rational targeting of specific pathways has fallen short of the goal. To date, the most impressive compound is rapamycin, a natural bacterial product initially identified as an antifungal, and only subsequently discovered to have...

Cell death and related signaling pathways are essential during development and in various physiological and pathological conditions. Post-translational modifications such as ubiquitination and phosphorylation play an important role in these signaling pathways. The involvement of kinases - enzymes that catalyze protein phosphorylation - in cell death signaling has been extensively studied. On the other hand, not many studies have been devoted to analyzing the role in cell death of phosphatases,...

To understand how the health of older adults today compares to that of previous generations, we estimated intrinsic capacity and subdomains of cognitive, locomotor, sensory, psychological and vitality capacities in participants of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Applying multilevel growth curve models, we found that more recent cohorts entered older ages with higher levels of capacity, while subsequent age-related declines were...

Uncouplers of mitochondrial electron transport chain, such as 2,4-dinitrophehol (DNP), can mimic calorie restriction by decreasing efficiency of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthesis. However, DNP is also a toxic substance, whose overdosage can be lethal. In the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster model, we have found that DNP in concentrations of 0.05-0.2 g/L, led to a drastic decrease in fruit fly survival on a low caloric diet (1% sucrose and 1% yeast; 1S-1Y). On the 5S-5Y diet, DNP decreased...

Advanced Glycation End (AGE) products are one such factor that accumulates during aging and age-related diseases. However, how exogenous AGE compounds cause aging is an area that needs to be explored. Specifically, how an organ undergoes aging and aging-related phenomena that need further investigation. The intestine is the most exposed area to food substances. How AGEs affect the intestine in terms of aging need to be explored. Drosophila melanogaster, a well-known model organism, is used to...

OBJECTIVES: This study examines whether social engagement at the time of retirement is associated with better cognitive function and slower cognitive decline.

INTRODUCTION: We investigated the neural correlates of cognitive decline in visual word perception from the perspective of intrinsic brain networks.

INTRODUCTION: Previous research has tended to focus on early-life education for dementia risk reduction, yet there are great gains for building cognitive reserve in mid- to later-life through educational interventions. ISLAND (Island Study Linking Ageing and Neurodegenerative Disease) Campus offered free university study to all ISLAND participants, with flexible in-person/online learning models to remove educational, socioeconomic and geographical barriers. Here the core hypothesis of ISLAND...

CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that HIIT is effective in enhancing plasma volume among obese menopausal women, attenuating the age-related decline in PV.

Deciphering the complex interplay between neuronal activity and mitochondrial function is pivotal in understanding brain aging, a multifaceted process marked by declines in synaptic function and mitochondrial performance. Here, we identified an age-dependent coupling between neuronal and synaptic excitation and mitochondrial DNA transcription (E-TC(mito)), which operates differently compared to classic excitation-transcription coupling in the nucleus (E-TC(nuc)). We demonstrated that E-TC(mito)...