Aging & Longevity

Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world and is a rich source of caffeine, a methylxanthine. Here we show that exposure to caffeine significantly reduces ionizing radiation (IR) induced DNA breaks and resulted in no or minimal G2/M arrest within the human cell, in contrast to IR alone. At the molecular level, we demonstrate that when naked plasmid DNA or oligomeric DNA was irradiated, the number of breaks was significantly less in the presence of caffeine. The observed...

Healthspan, the disease-free period of life, has become a central focus in aging research. Cuscuta chinensis seed and Eucommia ulmoides bark extracts, two traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) remedies, have shown promising healthspan-extending effects in Caenorhabditis elegans. In this study, RNA-seq analysis of aged worms treated with these extracts revealed significant transcriptomic alterations. Gene ontology and KEGG pathway analyses indicated upregulation of genes involved in immune defense,...

Aging is associated with skeletal muscle weakness and oxidative stress. Here, we hypothesized that aging may lead to alterations in adrenoceptor (AR)-dependent regulation of muscle contractility. These changes can aggravate muscle contractile dysfunction and correlate with redox disturbances. Glycolytic extensor digitorum longus (EDL) and oxidative soleus muscles from young adult (3 months), middle-aged (12 months), and old (24 months) mice were used. Contractile responses were elicited by...

CONCLUSION: The study highlights the gradual loss of the significant directed causal connections between the control and motor networks in different stages of PD. The governing influence of control network over the motor and attentional networks diminishes, leading to the isolation of the somatomotor network. The ability of TPDC-derived features to distinguish prodromal from Parkinson's patients underscores its value for identifying potential biomarkers of disease onset and progression.

In human populations, cognitive performance in early life has been identified as a strong predictor of future dementia risk. If cognitive ability were a stable trait across the adult lifespan of mice, then this species would provide an excellent framework for understanding the biology underlying this modifiable risk factor. To address this issue, longitudinal cognitive testing was performed in female C57BL/6J mice aged between 4 and 18 months of age. By tracking individuals, we were able to...

Entropy, a measure of disorder and randomness, is an essential feature of thermodynamics, chemistry, and information theory, but there has been little study of entropy in human aging. Entropy arises from random molecular interactions or other forms of damage and will manifest at all levels of human biology. It should also progress in concert across many systems and increase the risk of numerous aging-related conditions. Illustrating these principles, research by Hong in this issue of Aging Cell...

Telomerase, crucial for maintaining telomere integrity and genomic stability, is typically silenced in somatic cells with advancing age. In this study, we identify circHERC1 as a regulator of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) transcription. Specifically, circHERC1 binds to the TERT promoter, facilitating the recruitment of RNA polymerase II and c-Fos, thereby activating TERT expression. Notably, circHERC1 expression exhibits a decline with age, which correlates with reduced telomerase...

Glycogen storage disease (GSD) type IX γ2 is a rare inborn error of metabolism where a defect in glycogenolysis leads to the inability to break down glycogen in the liver. Patients with GSD IX γ2 develop hypoglycemia and advanced liver disease, placing them at risk for liver transplantation. This study evaluates the efficacy of liver-directed AAV gene therapy in a murine model of GSD IX γ2. Phkg2^(-/-) mice underwent treatment with AAV gene therapy (AAV9-LSP-mPhkg2, 5 × 10^(12) vg/kg,...

Time marches endlessly on … but what does that mean for the immune system? Here, investigators discuss how aging impacts the immune response and how immune cells can shape the aging process, with broader implications for modifying immunity to improve not only longevity but also health span.

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CONCLUSION: The results achieved in this study indicate that among older adults experiencing depression, women, those with higher educational levels, and those with existing illnesses are more likely to seek psychological support. Based on these results, it is recommended to develop educational programs to raise societal awareness about the importance of psychological support and to inform health policies accordingly.

Hemokinin-1 (HK-1) regulates several processes in the central and peripheral nervous systems, including musculoskeletal functions; however, its involvement in age-related motor coordination and muscle strength remains unknown. Therefore, these were investigated here with HK-1-deficient mice together with the expression patterns in the mouse and human motor coordination centers. Tac4 gene expression, encoding HK-1, was detected by RNAscope, and its age-dependent changes in the cerebellum and...

Despite extensive research on life-extending interventions, rigorous statistical techniques to determine their impact on compression of morbidity (CoM) are rarely used. We present a case example of an analytical method for examining the effect of life-extending dietary interventions on CoM by comparing the rates of decline in vitality and survival toward the end of life. Using data from previous experimental studies in mice, we calculated the average rate of vitality decline by fitting...

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Accumulating evidence has suggested that intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) serves as a health problem deserving attention from worldwide, owing to the low back pain and even disability it causes. Cellular senescence, an irreversible process of terminal cell cycle arrest, plays an essential role in the degeneration of nucleus pulposus (NP) cells and IVDD with an unknown underlying mechanism. Here, we have explored the senescence signature in IVDD through high dimensional weighted gene...