Aging & Longevity

Hippocampal atrophy across the lifespan is associated with cognitive decline, as is difficulty understanding speech-in-noise. The hippocampus contains subfields with distinct functions, but their involvement in hearing-related differences is unknown. Here, we used HippUnfold, an automated hippocampal unfolding and subfield segmentation method, together with Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA) to examine shared variance across hippocampal structure, hearing-related function, and cognition in younger...

Aging disrupts physiological homeostasis, impairing thermoregulation, metabolism, and water balance, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we identify arginine vasopressin (AVP) neurons in the supraoptic nucleus (SON) of the hypothalamus as a critical driver of these changes in male mice. Single-nucleus RNA-sequencing revealed Avp among the most upregulated neuronal transcripts with age. Aged SON^(AVP) neurons displayed enlarged size and heightened excitability, features...

The goal of developing interventions to slow ageing is not only lifespan extension but more importantly to increase healthspan, the period of life spent in active good health. Nutritional interventions have emerged as a potential strategy to maintain health with age. Testing these interventions for effects on human ageing would take several years and require large cohort sizes. We therefore employed C. elegans as a rapidly ageing model organism to investigate the effects of two commercially...

CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that retaining ≥ 20 teeth, brushing at least once daily, and using dentures are associated with a lower likelihood of anxiety symptoms among the elderly population. Further prospective studies are warranted to confirm these associations.

CONCLUSION: Advancing age is strongly associated with an increased burden of multimorbidity, which is intricately linked to depressive symptoms, diminished HRQoL, reduced muscular strength, central adiposity, and physical inactivity. These findings highlight the urgent need for integrated interventions in institutionalised older adults in sub-Saharan Africa and should inform policy reform aimed at strengthening long-term care and healthy ageing strategies.

CONCLUSION: This study highlights how older adults' perceptions of peers' OA are shaped by interpersonal impressions and social norms. Charisma, warmth, and facial expression could reduce the importance of specific orofacial features, whereas missing teeth, visible poor oral health, or appearance changes perceived as outside age-appropriate norms could trigger assumptions about lifestyle, vulnerability, or self-care.

CONCLUSIONS: Pre-social frailty and social frailty are common health challenges faced by community-dwelling older adults in China. Recent data indicate that the prevalence of these conditions remains high; although the prevalence is the very high heterogeneity and should be interpreted with caution, it nevertheless underscores the necessity and urgency of implementing effective interventions. Early identification and intervention for individuals at risk of social frailty are of critical...

Japan has one of the world's longest life expectancies, yet biomarkers associated with disability and mortality in very old adults remain uncertain. The goal of this study was to identify plasma proteins associated with incident disability and mortality in community-dwelling octogenarians. Two prospective cohorts were analyzed: the Kawasaki Aging Well-being Project (KAWP; 2017-2018; 4.5-year follow-up) as discovery and Invecchiare in Chianti (InCHIANTI; 1998-2000; 15-year follow-up) for external...

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations are hallmarks of aging. mtDNA in all opisthokonts is replicated exclusively by DNA Polymerase γ (Pol γ; encoded by POLG). PolgD257A/D257A mice, lacking Pol γ exonuclease proofreading (exo-), exhibit premature aging and higher mtDNA mutation rates than Polgwt/wt (exo+) mice. Using short-read sequencing and the ultra-sensitive LostArc indel-junction detection pipeline, we analyzed mtDNA from exo- and exo+ mice across 10 tissues. Indel-junction frequency,...

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Accurate identification and quantification of senescence-modulating compounds require screening platforms that can distinguish between phenotypically distinct drug response profiles. Conventional approaches relying on single-parameter measurements-either cell viability or senescence markers alone-cannot differentiate senolytic-like or anti-aging-like response profiles from non-specific cytotoxicity or proliferative effects. Here, we present the quantitative Cellular AGing Evaluation system...

The NLRP3 inflammasome has been implicated in a wide range of human diseases, including cardiovascular, metabolic, neurodegenerative (such as Alzheimer's disease), and other age-related conditions. This has positioned NLRP3 as a promising pharmacological target. Numerous studies have shown that complete NLRP3 ablation can prevent or mitigate these diseases. However, total elimination of NLRP3 is not a feasible therapeutic strategy for the millions of patients affected by these degenerative...

Aging tissues lose function in part because stem cells change in number and behavior, but how age-related changes in the stem cell niche drive these processes is not well understood. Using the fruit fly testis, we asked how aging of the niche microenvironment influences stem cell maintenance and competition. We show that levels of niche cell-derived bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signals decline with age, leading to increased expression of the transcriptional corepressor Hairless in germline...

The ability to continuously adjust hand movements using visual information is critical for success in many everyday tasks. To further characterize the age-related decline in visuomotor processes, here we investigated a task in which participants had to track with the hand, by means of a joystick, a visual target whose position was updated at different rates on a screen (from 1.5 to 240 Hz). This procedure was selected to grade the necessity for online control. As the target refresh rate...

Polyamines are ancient metabolites that support growth, translation, and autophagy. Zabala-Letona et al. reveal a new mode of action-'metabolic shielding'-in which polyamines protect phosphorylation motifs in spliceosomal factors. This work links polyamines, for the first time, to alternative splicing, raising new questions for cancer, aging, and beyond.

Vascular aging is characterized by endothelial senescence and vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) phenotypic switching, yet the role of endothelial extracellular vesicles (EVs) in these processes remains unclear. We show that EVs from non-senescent endothelial cells prevent PDGF-BB-induced VSMC dedifferentiation, preserving contractile markers and limiting migration. In endothelial cells, EVs protected against TNF-α-induced eNOS downregulation but failed to reverse inflammatory and mitochondrial...

Glycosylation is an important post-translational modification, and glycan alterations reflect physiological and pathological states. However, whether common age-associated glycan changes occur across organs remains unclear. Here, we analyzed protein-bound N-glycans in serum, brain, lung, heart, liver, skeletal muscle, and kidney to identify aging-related alterations shared across tissues. Although glycan profiles were strongly organ-specific, age-dependent changes were observed in each organ....

Multimorbidity, the co-occurrence of multiple chronic conditions in individuals, complicates clinical management, increases healthcare use, and reduces life quality. This study investigates the association between socioeconomic position and multimorbidity, restricted to co-occurrence of two or more conditions among type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, selected cancers as a single category, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and depression, in a population-based cohort in Piedmont,...

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Mitochondria have evolved a specialized mitochondrial unfolded protein response (UPR^(mt)) to maintain proteostasis and promote recovery under stress. Studies in simple organisms have shown that UPR^(mt) activation in glial cells supports proteostasis through beneficial non-cell-autonomous communication with neurons. However, the role of mitochondrial stress responses in the human brain remains unclear. To address this gap, we investigated the cell-type-specific effects of mitochondrial...