Aging & Longevity

Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease are the most common neurodegenerative diseases, significantly affecting the elderly with no current cure available. With the rapidly aging global population, advancing research on these diseases becomes increasingly critical. Both disorders are often studied using model organisms, which enable researchers to investigate disease phenotypes and their underlying molecular mechanisms. In this review, we critically discuss the strengths and limitations of using...

Many of the "hallmarks of aging" involve alterations in cellular and organismal metabolism. One pathway with the potential to impact several traditional markers of impaired function with aging is the PI3K/AKT metabolic pathway. Regulation of this pathway includes many aspects of cellular function, including protein synthesis, proliferation, and survival, as well as many downstream targets, including mTOR and FOXOs. Importantly, this pathway is pivotal to the function of every organ system in the...

Pulmonary fibrosis is an incurable disease that manifests with advanced age. Yet, how hematopoietic aging influences immune responses and fibrosis progression remains unclear. Using heterochronic bone marrow transplant mouse models, we found that an aged bone marrow exacerbates lung fibrosis irrespective of lung tissue age. Upon lung injury, there was an increased accumulation of monocyte-derived alveolar macrophages (Mo-AMs) driven by cell-intrinsic hematopoietic aging. These Mo-AMs exhibited...

Steroid hormone levels vary greatly among individuals, between sexes, with age, and across health and disease. What drives variance in steroid hormones and how they vary in individuals over time are not well studied. To address these questions, we measured 17 steroid hormones in a sex-balanced cohort of 949 healthy donors aged 20 to 69 years. We investigated associations between steroid levels and biological sex, age, clinical and demographic data, genetics, and plasma proteomics. Steroid...

Metabolic dysregulation represents one of the major driving forces in aging. Although multiple genetic and pharmacological manipulations are known to extend longevity in model organisms, aging is a complex trait, and targeting one's own genes may be insufficient to prevent age-dependent deterioration. An alternative strategy could be to use enzymes from other species to reverse age-associated metabolic changes. In this review, we discuss a set of enzymes from lower organisms that have been shown...

The basic excitatory neurons of the cerebral cortex, the pyramidal cells, are the most important signal integrators for the local circuit. They have quite characteristic morphological and electrophysiological properties that are known to be largely constant with age in the young and adult cortex. However, the brain undergoes several dynamic changes throughout life, such as in the phases of early development and cognitive decline in the aging brain. We set out to search for intrinsic cellular...

Efforts to increase health span bring to light the necessity of constructing biological age (BA) for measuring aging. However, universally adaptive BA needs further investigation, especially among the Chinese population. Therefore, this study aimed to construct BA using routine clinical markers for the Chinese population. Included were two Chinese prospective cohorts, the Kailuan Study I (n = 83,571) for developing BA and the Kailuan Study II (n = 21,229) for validation. Leveraging baseline...

CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that PNF techniques compared with aerobic exercise could not contribute to improved balance, fear of falling, and quality of life. Therefore, more clinical trial studies with a control group are needed to determine the exact effects of these techniques.

Studies examining the interplay between chronic pain, cognitive function, and functional brain abnormalities in older adults are scarce. To address this gap, we administered a series of neuropsychological tests and recorded electroencephalography (EEG) data during resting-state conditions in 26 older adults with chronic pain (CPOA), 30 pain-free older adults (OA), and 31 younger adults (YA). CPOA demonstrated poorer performance compared to OA on the Stroop test, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test...

Collagen loss is one of the major contributor to signs of skin aging such as dryness, roughness, and wrinkle formation, which is closely linked to a decline in the amount of proline produced in mitochondria. Melatonin has been shown to improve several clinical signs of skin aging, while the mechanism is unclear. In our study, we found that mitophagy, proline synthesis key enzyme NADK2 and proline and collagen levels were significantly reduced, while oxidative stress levels increased in aging...

Ames dwarf mice (df/df) live 50% longer than normal littermates due to a genetic defect in growth hormone (GH) signaling. The enhanced longevity of Ames dwarfs has been studied extensively in an endocrinological context of cellular metabolism and increased resistance to oxidative stress (Bartke. World J Mens Health 37(1):19, 8; Bartke 2; BartkeJ Am Aging Assoc 23(4):219, 10; Bartke. World J Mens Health 39(3):454-465, 11; Brown-Borg et al. Nature 384(6604):33-33, 1; Masternak et al. 2018)....

The human Fallopian tube (FT) is an important organ in the female reproductive system and has been implicated as a site of origin for pelvic serous cancers, including high-grade serous tubo-ovarian carcinoma (HGSC). We have generated comprehensive whole-genome bisulfite sequencing, RNA-seq, and proteomic data of over 100 human FTs, with detailed clinical covariate annotations. Our results challenge existing paradigms that extensive epigenetic, transcriptomic and proteomic alterations exist in...

Samul-tang (SM) is a traditional prescription widely used in clinical practice for the management of gynecological diseases, especially for menstrual regulation and infertility treatment. We previously reported its efficacy in increasing mature oocyte production and improving ovarian reserves, potentially regulated by rat sarcoma virus (Ras) signaling in the ovaries of aged mice. Although the main ingredients of SM are known, the bioactive compounds responsible for protecting ovarian function...

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Ageing is the most prominent risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the cellular mechanisms linking neuronal proteostasis decline to the characteristic aberrant protein deposits in the brains of patients with AD remain elusive. Here we develop transdifferentiated neurons (tNeurons) from human dermal fibroblasts as a neuronal model that retains ageing hallmarks and exhibits AD-linked vulnerabilities. Remarkably, AD tNeurons accumulate proteotoxic deposits, including phospho-tau and...

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Adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors are an ideal platform for gene therapy due to their ability to deliver therapeutic cargos safely and effectively across various target organs. Their low immunogenicity contributes to long-lasting therapeutic effects. However, recent insights highlight the significance of CpG content within AAV vectors, where unmethylated CpG dinucleotides can trigger a TLR9-mediated immune response, leading to the rapid elimination of transduced cells. Clinical evidence...

CONCLUSIONS: The risk of osteoporosis is independently associated with the prediction of mortality. The OSTA may serve as a suitable predictor for mortality related to osteoporosis among the Asian population.

CONCLUSION: Moderate and light physical activity in older adults alleviates depression and improves instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), and light physical activity improves the level of activities of daily living (ADLs).

CONCLUSION: The prevalence of VI is high older (> 55 years) adults in Cameroon, with clear differences between men and women. The oldest individuals, and women appear to be most vulnerable. The identification of at-risk groups/persons through this cross-sectional study should make it possible to adapt public health strategies to contribute to the WHO objective of healthy ageing.