Aging & Longevity

The molecular basis underlying muscle atrophy, as it occurs during disuse or aging, and activity-induced hypertrophy remain poorly understood. A major challenge has been defining the diverse cellular and niche environments within skeletal muscle, which is mostly composed of multinucleated myofibers. Here, we present a single-nucleus and single-cell transcriptomic atlas, coupled with spatial profiling, of mouse limb skeletal muscle under resting conditions and during experimentally induced...

Understanding aging and complex diseases requires diverse data, ranging from molecular profiles to imaging and routine clinical tests. However, most multi-omic datasets measure only a subset of modalities and are confounded by batch effects. Here, we present AURORA (AI unification and reconstruction of omics reassembly atlas), a generative deep-learning platform that integrates seven modalities (including transcriptomics, metabolomics, microbiome, 3D and thermal facial imaging, and clinical...

Fatty acids (FAs), as the predominant organic acids, form a major component of the metabolome. We present a multi-tiered method that comprehensively captures FA diversity-including chain lengths (C2-C34), unsaturation, isomers, and endogenous forms-within a single biological specimen. This workflow quantifies the broadest range of free FAs reported to date. Integrated with two complementary tiers profiling the total FA pool from alkaline hydrolysis and esterified acyl compositions across lipid...

Frailty is a complex trait that significantly increases the risk for negative health consequences, including hospitalization and disability. However, the evidence regarding the genetic basis of frailty phenotype (FP) is very limited. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on FP using the data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). We classified the participants as non-frail, pre-frail, and frail, and performed a GWAS utilizing the ordinal logistic regression adjusted...

DNA variants modulate mortality risks across an entire lifespan but their dynamic age-dependent effects have not been resolved in any species for either sex. Here we mapped variants that shape mortality using an actuarial approach, starting with a base population of 6,438 pubescent mice and ending with 559 survivors that lived beyond 1,100 days of age. Twenty-nine Vita loci influence lifespan with strong age- and sex-specific effects. Most act during distinct stages with polarities that often...

Cognitive performance prediction may help identify early cognitive decline. However, the heterogeneity of research findings impedes the identification of key predictors. This study used 21,877 participants (25-74 years) from the German National Cohort (NAKO Gesundheitsstudie, NAKO) to systematically predict cognitive test scores based on brain structure, demographic, health-related, and cognitive data. Importantly, validation analyses were performed across study sites and external samples...

De novo lipogenesis (DNL) is a metabolic process by which carbohydrates are converted into fatty acids and used for immediate energy or stored as triglycerides for later use. Increased DNL in brown adipose tissue (BAT) is believed to be a marker of metabolic health, but indicates poor metabolism if upregulated in hepatic tissue. ChREBP is a primary regulator of whole-body DNL and promotes production of key enzymes including fatty acid synthase, acetyl-CoA carboxylase, and stearoyl-CoA...

High altitude-associated pathophysiological processes may potentially accelerate aging trajectory, while evidence remains limited. We present immune landscape characterization in human populations residing at 3656-meter (Lhasa) and 5070-meter (Tuiwacun) elevations on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, complemented by multiorgan single-cell RNA sequencing and spatially enhanced resolution omics sequencing (Stereo-seq) of mice under simulated 5000-meter hypoxic conditions. Comparative analysis revealed...

SRGBHSP is a classic traditional Chinese medicinal. Modern studies found that SRGBHSP had antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and constitution-strengthening pharmacological effects. Oxidative stress is a major factor that can cause an organism to age. Therefore, we proposed that SRGBHSP has an aging modulatory effect by its antioxidant properties. In the present study, we used a C. elegans model to explore the aging modulatory activity of the extract from SRGBHSP. Aging modulatory effects of SRGBHSP...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) share metabolic and inflammatory mechanisms, potentially mediated by the gut microbiota, yet the neurobiological impact of comorbid AD+T2DM microbiota from elderly donors remains unexplored. Fecal microbiota from healthy, AD, T2DM, and AD+T2DM postmenopausal female donors (aged 56-89 years) was transplanted into antibiotic-treated male mice. Behavioral testing, blood profiling, hippocampal neurotrophic gene expression, and 16S rRNA...

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) is a classical coenzyme regulating cellular energy metabolism. Emerging evidence demonstrates the causal relationship between defective NAD metabolism and various age-associated diseases. The major purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of adipocyte mitochondrial NAD biology in age-associated metabolic diseases. To this end, we focused on solute carrier family 25 member 51 (SLC25A51), a recently identified mitochondrial NAD transporter....

Biological aging reflects the progressive decline in cellular and tissue function. Unlike chronological age, biological age is a more accurate indicator of physiological state. Multi-omics organ clocks have been emerging as promising tools to assess biological aging by integrating genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data. These conceptual frameworks suggest that individual organs may age at different rates, explaining variability in the onset and progression of...

Aging is associated with significant alterations in systemic metabolism across species. We employed targeted metabolomics to investigate the effects of losartan, an angiotensin II receptor blocker, on the serum metabolome of aged mice and pre-frail older men. Losartan treatment resulted in a shift in serum metabolome aging signature to a more youthful state. This rejuvenation effect appears to be contingent on the presence of functional angiotensin II receptors, with receptor knockout mice...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease with progressive loss of motor neurons. Insufficiency of neurotrophic factors is suspected to underlie the disease, but direct evidence remains scarce. In this study, we discover that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) val/met mutation, which results in a decrease in BDNF secretion, reduces survival time of ALS patients in two separate cohorts. Using a knockin mouse model of the ALS causal gene FUS^(R521C), we demonstrate...

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) lacks effective targeted therapies and carries a poor prognosis. TNBC cells escape oncogene-induced senescence and adapt to elevated replication stress. Here, we show that cells escaping senescence depend on overexpression of RNase H2, which removes misincorporated ribonucleotides from genomic DNA. RNASEH2A, the catalytic subunit of RNase H2, is overexpressed in TNBC tumors and correlates with poor survival. Genetic silencing or pharmacological inhibition of...

Semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist, improves metabolic health and reduces liver fat in people with HIV (PWH) and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). This post hoc analysis of the 24-week SLIM LIVER single-arm trial (ACTG A5371, No. NCT04216589, registered 02nd Jan 2020) in 41 PWH with MASLD receiving semaglutide (1.0 mg weekly) aimed to evaluate its effect on epigenetic aging and determine whether changes in epigenetic clocks associate with clinical...

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Aging is associated with progressive deterioration of vascular function and cardiovascular risk. Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is closely associated with cardiovascular health, yet longitudinal data in healthy older adults remain limited. This study examined 3-year changes in vascular and echocardiographic parameters in older adults and their associations with CRF and muscle strength. Forty-nine participants (mean age 63.8 ± 3.8 years) underwent vascular assessments (brachial/central blood...

Aging is a complex process influenced by various factors, including gut microbiota and food likings. Focusing on gut and dietary health is a crucial strategy for promoting long-term health and active aging. This study investigates the reciprocal causal relationships between gut microbiota, food likings and aging using Mendelian Randomization (MR) approaches. We leveraged the summary statistics of gut microbiota (n = 5,959), food likings (n = 161,625), and three aging phenotypes including...

The ubiquitin-proteasome system is essential for neuronal proteostasis, yet its function declines with age. How aging affects deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs) in the vertebrate brain remains unclear. Here we used activity-based proteomics to profile cysteine protease DUBs in aging mouse and killifish brains. We identified a subset of DUBs that progressively lose catalytic activity with age despite stable protein abundance. Mechanistically, oxidative stress impaired DUB function through thiol...