Aging & Longevity

Epigenetics, the study of heritable changes in gene expression that do not involve alterations to the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequence, plays a pivotal role in cellular function, development, and aging. This review explores key epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation (DNAm), histone modifications, chromatin remodeling, RNA-based regulation, and long-distance chromosomal interactions. These modifications contribute to cellular differentiation and function, mediating the dynamic...

CONCLUSION: Collectively, the CT ratio exhibits adequate prognostic accuracy for low HGS, which is not significantly affected by comorbidities and functional limitations. Our findings have clinical and policy implications in timely identifying older adults at risk of developing low HGS.

CONCLUSIONS: This study proposes a novel integration of semantic and executive mechanisms underlying the observed increase in false memories during aging, with inhibition playing an unexpected role in enhancing false memory susceptibility.

Trajectories of decline from healthy aging to dementia are not linear; they may range from a more attenuated to a more accelerated cognitive worsening. This longitudinal study investigates the impact of Cognitive Reserve (CR) on task performance in a cohort of 117 individuals (mean age 74.89; SD = 7.43) who experienced difficulties in everyday life and referred to a neuropsychology unit for cognitive assessment. Only participants assessed three times were included in the study. CR was estimated...

Epigenetic clocks have emerged as novel measures of biological aging and potential predictors of mortality. We examined all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality prediction by epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) estimated using different epigenetic clocks. Among 2105 participants to the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey aged ≥ 50 years old and followed for mortality through 2019, we calculated EAAs from the residuals of nine epigenetic clocks regressed on...

Frailty indexes (FIs) capture health status in humans and model organisms. To accelerate our understanding of biological aging and carry out scalable interventional studies, high-throughput approaches are necessary. We previously introduced a machine vision-based visual frailty index (vFI) that uses mouse behavior in the open field to assess frailty using C57BL/6J (B6J) data. Aging trajectories are highly genetic and are frequently modeled in genetically diverse animals. In order to extend the...

CONCLUSION: Our study confirms enduring sex differences in memory and executive function, even among individuals aged 80 and above. Current gonadal hormone levels do not mediate these differences. While estrogen may predict executive function, its influence does not explain the sex differences. These findings underscore the complex nature of cognitive disparities between sexes in older age, warranting further investigation into underlying mechanisms.

The composition and functionality of the gut microbiota (GM) changes throughout the life course. As we move into older age, it starts to shift towards a less healthy one, which may lead to an imbalance in the GM community. Strategies that can reverse age-related dysbiosis are an important part of healthy aging. Little is known about the GM composition of older adults with different physical activity (PA) levels and whether it might contribute to healthy ageing. The aim of this study was to...

CONCLUSIONS: Inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption was associated with higher odds for injurious falls among adults aged ≥ 50 years (especially females), and this association was partly mediated by cognition, affect, and sleep/energy. Future longitudinal studies are necessary to provide more insight into the underlying mechanisms, and to assess whether increasing fruit/vegetable consumption may reduce risk for falls.

Mutations that accumulate in the human male germline with age are a major driver of genetic diversity and contribute to genetic diseases. However, aging-related male germline mutation rates have not been measured directly in germline cells (sperm) at the level of individuals. We developed a study design in which we recalled 23 sperm donors with prior banked samples to provide new sperm samples. The old and new sequential sperm samples were separated by long timespans, ranging from 10 to 33...

Hydropower, an important renewable energy source worldwide, is threatened by reservoir sedimentation. Ecological restoration (ER) can mitigate this by reducing upstream sediment, thereby extending hydropower facilities' lifespan. However, ER may also reduce runoff, potentially diminishing energy generation and complicating its overall impact on hydropower potential. Here, we examine China's Yellow River, once the world's most sediment-laden river, using eco-hydrological and reservoir regulation...

Speech comprehension in noisy environments constitutes a critical challenge in everyday life and affects people of all ages. This challenging listening situation can be alleviated using semantic context to predict upcoming words (i.e., predictability gain)-a process associated with the domain-specific semantic network. When no such context can be used, speech comprehension in challenging listening conditions relies on cognitive control functions, underpinned by domain-general networks. Most...

Changes in β-amyloid (Aβ) and hyperphosphorylated tau (T) in brain and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) precede Alzheimer's disease (AD) symptoms, making the CSF proteome a potential avenue to understand disease pathophysiology and facilitate reliable diagnostics and therapies. Using the AT framework and a three-stage study design (discovery, replication, and meta-analysis), we identified 2,173 analytes (2,029 unique proteins) dysregulated in AD. Of these, 865 (43%) were previously reported, and 1,164...

The liver is a metabolic powerhouse, crucial for regulating carbohydrates, fats, and protein metabolism. In this study, we conducted a comparative proteomic and phosphoproteomic analysis of aging mouse livers from young adults (3-4 months) and old (19-21 months) mice to identify age-related changes in liver proteins and phosphosites, which were linked to various metabolic pathways. In old mice, proteins associated with the "complement and coagulation cascade," "age-rage signaling in diabetic...

The initial setting of telomere length during early life in each individual has a major influence on lifetime risk of aging-associated diseases; however there is limited knowledge of biological signals that regulate inheritance of telomere length, and whether it is modifiable is not known. We now show that when mitochondrial activity is disrupted in mouse zygotes, via exposure to 20% O(2) or rotenone, telomere elongation between the 8-cell and blastocyst stage is impaired, with shorter telomeres...

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Ageing-induced skeletal muscle deterioration contributes to sarcopenia and frailty, adversely impacting the quality of life in the elderly. However, the molecular mechanisms behind primate skeletal muscle ageing remain largely unexplored. Here, we show that SIRT5 expression is reduced in aged primate skeletal muscles from both genders. SIRT5 deficiency in human myotubes hastens cellular senescence and intensifies inflammation. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that TBK1 is a natural substrate for...

Social disadvantage, like advanced age, is a risk factor for a broad range of health conditions; however, whether it influences the aging process remains unclear. Here, using a multicohort approach, we investigated the associations of social disadvantage with age-related plasma proteins and age-related diseases. We found proteomic signatures of accelerated immune aging and 14 specific age-related proteins linked to social disadvantage during both early and later life. Individuals experiencing...

CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of frailty among older adults with comorbidities is exceptionally high, influenced by various dimensions from health ecology perspective. Psychological care and daily behavior management should be strengthened for the frail older with multimorbidity. Precise and individualized care interventions need to be developed to help promote healthy aging.