Aging & Longevity

Aging is accompanied by a progressive decline in skeletal muscle mass and function, culminating in sarcopenia, a major contributor to frailty, disability, and mortality in older adults. While skeletal muscle aging has traditionally been attributed to cell-autonomous and local tissue mechanisms, increasing evidence suggests that systemic, cell non-autonomous processes play a central role in coordinating aging across organs. The brain, particularly the hypothalamus, has emerged as a key regulator...

IntroductionThis study extends prior work by identifying multidimensional profiles of co-occurring mental health and cognitive symptoms that better reflect the complexity of aging and identify high-risk subgroups with more severe symptom profiles.MethodsThis secondary analysis used Wave II data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP). Latent profile analysis was conducted to identify distinct symptom profiles and examine associated sociodemographic, clinical, and...

A common misconception is that increasing longevity reflects slower aging. Instead, most longevity gain comes from medical advances that allow survival with disease, rather than changes to the biology of aging itself, challenging how we study aging and health.

This narrative review discusses the relationship between structural changes in the skin and mitochondrial function during aging and evaluates emerging therapeutic interventions targeting mitochondrial dysfunction. An analysis of 49 scientific articles published between 2015 and 2025 was conducted using descriptors including "skin aging," "mitochondrial dysfunction," "oxidative stress," and "cutaneous senescence," and articles were retrieved from PubMed, Scopus, and ScienceDirect. Additional...

CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the complex web of interrelations linking dementia with social, behavioural, and health-related factors in later life. Rather than implying causal direction, these findings illustrate how multiple factors cluster and coexist within older adults' lives. These interconnections may inform the design of holistic strategies that integrate employment opportunities, physical activity promotion, social participation, sleep health, and cerebrovascular prevention into...

CONCLUSION: Cognitive decline over four years was associated with an increased risk of mortality among older women. Further studies should explore whether declines earlier in life or among men are also associated with an increased risk of mortality.

The gut microbiome may shape how diet influences cognitive aging, but population-based evidence remains limited. In 784 older adults living in rural China (70-98 years old) with fecal metagenomics and structured dietary assessment, a modified healthful plant-based diet index (mHPDI) is associated with distinct gut microbial structure and taxonomic shifts (15 species, 17 genera). Among participants with repeated cognitive measurements, higher mHPDI is associated with better global cognition, with...

Aging and biological sex are critical moderators of sleep quality, which contributes significantly to age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk. This study investigated how age and sex moderated the relationship between subjective sleep quality and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) within networks associated with hyperarousal and cognitive processing. Using an exploratory-confirmatory approach across two datasets (N = 95 and N = 1244), we examined connectivity of...

Aging is a major risk factor for numerous diseases, including degenerative and metabolic disorders. Cumulative mitochondrial damage, elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS), and impaired mitophagy are hallmarks of aging. In this study, we generated a Drosophila version of the mito-SRAI reporter to monitor mitophagy in vivo and demonstrated an age-dependent decline in muscle mitophagy, accompanied by the accumulation of insoluble proteins, increased ROS levels, and mitochondrial damage....

The neurotransmitter system (NTS) composed of neurotransmitter receptors and transporters is associated with a variety of diseases and disorders. The identification of disease-associated NTS features is important for understanding disease mechanisms and for prioritizing potential therapeutic targets. The differences in the composition of NTS in aging and different diseases are not well understood. Here, we show how to integrate multi-omics data at scale, including single-cell and spatial...

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Werner (WRN) is the only human RecQ helicase family member with DNA exonuclease activity. WRN promotes genome stability through its functions in DNA replication, repair and telomere maintenance, the deficiency of which presents clinically as Werner syndrome, causing premature aging and cancer predisposition. The main DNA double strand-break sensor Ku70/80 heterodimer (Ku) is a known partner of WRN, which stimulates its nuclease activity. However, the molecular basis of Ku-WRN interplay is...

As global aging intensifies, elucidating reproductive health's epigenetic aging associations is crucial. However, the impact of reproductive history on multi-generational DNA methylation (DNAm) clocks remains insufficiently characterized, representing a significant gap in understanding biological vs. chronological aging divergence. This study analyzed 1117 U.S. women aged 50 or older from NHANES 1999-2002 to examine associations between reproductive history and 12 DNA methylation (DNAm)...

As age is a significant risk factor for multiple neurodegenerative diseases, investigating normal brain aging may help identify molecular events contributing to increased disease risk over time. Single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) enables analysis of gene expression changes within specific cell-types, offering insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying aging. However, most brain aging snRNA-seq datasets use age-matched controls from studies focused on pathology and sample cortical...

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Cellular senescence is a hallmark of age-related disorders, including cancer, in which senescence contributes to tumor progression and treatment resistance. Targeting senescent cells therapeutically requires noninvasive methods to longitudinally monitor senescence burden. Here, we present an injectable nanoprobe for noninvasive detection of therapy-induced senescence in lung cancer and pulmonary fibrosis via urine testing. Using human biopsy samples, clinical transcriptomic datasets and mouse...

Optimal sleep has a vital role in promoting healthy ageing and enhancing longevity. Here we propose Sleep Chart to assess the relationship between self-reported sleep duration and 23 biological ageing clocks derived from in vivo imaging¹, plasma proteomics² and metabolomics³. First, a systemic, U-shaped pattern emerges between sleep duration and biological age gaps across nine brain and body systems and three omics technologies. The sample-specific lowest biological age gaps are achieved between...

The human brain relies on a complex network of connections to function, with white matter acting as the primary communication highway between different brain regions^(1,2). Disruptions in these critical communication pathways are linked to several neurological, psychiatric and developmental disorders^(3,4). Although clinicians have long used standard growth charts to track physical development⁵, with more recent work translating these to whole-brain and grey matter measurements^(6-9), there has...

Genomic stability is critical for cellular function; however, in the central nervous system, highly metabolically active differentiated neurons are challenged to maintain their genome over the organismal lifespan without replication. DNA damage in neurons increases with chronological age and accelerates in neurodegenerative disorders, resulting in cellular and systemic dysregulation. Distinct DNA damage response strategies have evolved with a host of polymerases. The Y-family translesion...