Aging & Longevity

No abstract

With the increasing proportion of elderly individuals, understanding biological mechanisms of aging is critical. Retinal vascular complexity, measured as fractal dimension (D(f)) from fundus photographs, has emerged as a vascular aging indicator. We conducted a genome-wide association study of D(f) on 74,434 participants from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, Genetics of Diabetes Audit and Research in Tayside Scotland, and UK Biobank cohorts. We identified a novel locus near DAAM1. We...

Epigenetic inheritance alerts naïve descendants to prepare for stresses that could still be present, whereas distant descendants return to a basal state after several generations without stress. However, organisms are frequently exposed to stresses successively across generations. We found that parental hypoxia exposure increased P0 longevity, caused intergenerational lipid reduction, and elicited transgenerational fertility reduction that was dependent on generationally transmitted small RNAs....

Many elements of an organism's behavior are intertwined with the organism's health. Over a long period of time, health status is also indicative of life span, with improved health correlating with a longer life. However, the relationship between longevity and behavior remains relatively unexplored. Here, we report that modification of a single longevity gene downstream of dietary restriction and hypoxia markedly alters behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans. We found that modified expression of...

Aging is characterized by disruptions in metabolic homeostasis, yet the mechanisms that regulate these metabolic changes remain poorly understood. We show that the serine/threonine-protein phosphatase 6 (PP6) regulatory subunit 3, SAPS3, is a critical regulator of metabolism during aging. SAPS3 deletion significantly extends lifespan in mice and counteracts age-related impairments in metabolic health. SAPS3 deficiency improves the effects of aging on the affective behaviors, cognition, and motor...

Senescence is a multifactorial and individualised process of age-related physiological decline. Cellular markers, such as telomere length and DNA methylation, can reveal subtle changes associated with chronological age or expected lifespan. In this study, we evaluated the utility of fin tissue as a surrogate for assessing telomere length and proportion of DNA methylation in the gonads of a small, short-lived laboratory fish, the turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri). We collected fin and...

CONCLUSIONS: This study supports incorporating RHGS assessment into routine midlife health screenings and adopting sex- and age-specific strategies to improve cost-effective disease prevention. Clinically, prioritize cognitive screening in older adults with low RHGS, focus on glucose and lipid disorders in middle-aged individuals with low RHGS, and emphasize cardiovascular risk assessment in middle-aged and older females with low RHGS.

No abstract

Investigating the interplay between mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variations and epigenetic aging metrics may elucidate biological mechanisms associated with age-related diseases. We estimated epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) metrics from DNA methylation data and derived mtDNA metrics, including heteroplasmic variants and mtDNA copy number (mtDNA CN) from whole genome sequencing. Linear regressions and meta-analyses were conducted to assess associations between EAA and mtDNA metrics, adjusting for...

CONCLUSION: The quantitative value of SCV was negatively correlated with cognitive decline. Daily tea consumption may have a positive impact on the quantitative features of SCVs in the young group. As SCVs are a component of the glymphatic system, their blood flow may affect the clearance of toxic proteins.

While circadian rhythm disruption may promote neurodegenerative disease, the impact of aging and neurodegenerative pathology on circadian gene expression patterns in different brain cell types remains unknown. Here we used a translating ribosome affinity purification to identify the circadian translatomes of astrocytes, microglia and bulk tissue in healthy mouse cortex and in the settings of amyloid-β plaque pathology or aging. We show that glial circadian translatomes are highly...

CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the potential of Internet use as an intervention to mitigate loneliness among older adults during major public health crises, such as the COVID-19, by promoting social participation and online social contact. This provides an implication for developing strategies to support the older population during future crises.

CONCLUSION: Our study showed that the dietary patterns of older adults in the Philippines were associated with sociodemographic factors, lifestyle, and nutritional status. This study sheds light on understanding better the role of sex, age, SES, educational attainment, and lifestyle factors, nutritional status in influencing dietary patterns of older adults. Our findings make a valuable contribution in crafting specific and timely nutrition-focused interventions for the older population in...

Lamin A/C (LMNA), a key component of the nuclear envelope, is essential for maintaining nuclear integrity and genome organization [W. Xie et al., Curr. Biol. 26, 2651-2658 (2016)]. While LMNA dysregulation has been implicated in genomic instability across cancer and aging, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood [S. Graziano et al., Nucleus 9, 258-275 (2018)]. Here, we define a mechanistic role for LMNA in preserving genome stability in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), a malignancy...

In multicellular organisms, sensory perception affects many aspects of behavior and physiology. Perception of environmental stressors like food scarcity often leads to physiological changes that promote survival and slow aging. However, recent work shows that perception of attractive food smells can block the health benefits of dietary restriction in multiple model organisms. While it is known that sensory perception and cell nonautonomous signaling can modulate health and longevity, our...

CONCLUSION: The study offers insights into early detection and prevention strategies for healthy aging. Assuming that physical and cognitive domains are primarily driven by age-related biological changes, our findings support theories proposing that biological changes precede functional decline, and theories emphasizing the importance of psychosocial resilience. Moreover, this study highlights the potential of adopting a complex systems approach and innovative within-person analytical methods in...

CONCLUSION: This study highlights the heterogeneity of functional transitions during the aging process. Within this cohort, orientation emerged as the most consistent protective factor against functional deterioration. The protective role of orientation is likely attributable not only to its fundamental importance for performing essential functional tasks, but also as a key early indicator of mild cognitive impairment and dementia. These findings underscore that distinct cognitive predictors can...

CONCLUSIONS: Following hospitalization for stroke and hip fracture, discharge to an IRF was associated with lower mortality relative to SNF. However, given the potential for unmeasured confounding, this association should be interpreted with caution. Careful post-acute care referral protocols are critical to ensure good patient outcomes.

p53 is a key tumor suppressor, and mutations in the p53 gene occur in more than half of all human cancers. p53, which is under tight and complex regulation in cells, functions primarily as a transcription factor regulating genes involved in many cellular processes, including cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, senescence, ferroptosis, and metabolism, thereby maintaining genomic integrity and preventing tumorigenesis. While the cell-intrinsic functions of p53, which contribute to its tumor-suppressive...

A decline in food-searching behavior of post-reproductive animals can benefit the population and possibly be programmed by the genome despite its detrimental effect on an individual. We investigated the genetic program of age-dependent decline in chemotaxis behavior toward an odorant secreted from bacterial food in C. elegans. Through a novel forward genetic screen, we identified the gene encoding a nuclear hormone receptor, nhr-76, whose mutants ameliorate the age-dependent chemotaxis decline....