Aging & Longevity

CONCLUSION: The Support Vector Machine model can effectively identify high-risk older hospitalized patients with decreased intrinsic capacity. Early risk identification and targeted intervention measures applied in clinical practice are helpful to improve the health level of older hospitalized patients and achieve healthy aging.

Age-related motor decline is influenced not only by muscle atrophy but also by deterioration of the neuromuscular system. However, the effects of aging and disuse on spinal motor neuron (MN) plasticity remain poorly understood. In this study, we examined how short-term hindlimb unloading (HU)-a disuse model-affects neuromuscular junction (NMJ) integrity and spinal motor neuron (MN) synaptic inputs in young (3 months) and aged (22 months) mice. We also assessed whether TRPM8-mediated skin cooling...

This study highlights the underexplored differences in the prevalence and distribution of noncommunicable disease (NCD) risk factors among Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and Sikh Indian adults aged 45 and older. Using nationally representative data from 54,601 participants in the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (2017-2018), we investigated nine NCD risk factors by sex: hypertension, abdominal adiposity, diabetes, tobacco use, excessive alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, poor sleep hygiene,...

While neuroinflammation is an established response to both weight gain and aging, the hypothalamic neuroinflammatory early response to weight loss (WL) remains unknown, particularly in mid-age. Here, we questioned whether WL-induced rapid restoration of normoglycemia is mediated by the resolution of hypothalamic microgliosis in mid-aged mice. Mid-aged (1 year) mice were fed normal chow (NC) or a high-fat diet (HFD, 8 weeks), and WL was induced by a 2-week switch back to NC. Key findings were...

An important hallmark of aging is the loss of proteostasis, which can lead to the formation of protein aggregates and mitochondrial dysfunction in neurons. Although it is well known that protein synthesis is finely regulated in the brain, especially at synapses, where mRNAs are locally translated in an activity-dependent manner, little is known as to the changes in the synaptic proteome and transcriptome during aging. Therefore, this work aims to elucidate the relationship between the...

Redox signaling is a key mechanism of exercise-induced adaptation. However, studies have demonstrated impaired responses to acute exercise in older organisms. Adjunctive therapies to augment exercise effects may overcome these deficits. Sulforaphane (SFN), a phytochemical from cruciferous vegetables, stimulates NRF2. This study tested the hypothesis that combining acute exercise (in vivo stimulus) with ex vivo SFN treatment would induce greater NRF2 activation and signaling in older adults...

Biological aging exhibits significant heterogeneity across individuals, and a precise evaluation at scale is urgently needed. Here, we developed a PCAge, based on common clinical, physiological, and laboratory indices routinely collected in primary healthcare, in the CHARLS. PCAge demonstrated strong correlations with chronological age (r = 0.86-0.88, P < 0.001) and robust performance in the prediction of mortality (C-index = 0.798) over a 10-year follow-up. Biologically older individuals (PCAge...

CONCLUSIONS: HFD mitigates age-related auditory and vestibular impairments by utilizing macrophage-driven anti-inflammatory processes, potentially through polarization towards an M2 phenotype. This research offers fresh perspectives for creating specific treatments, indicating the variable therapeutic possibilities of dietary adjustments in age-related cellular damage. However, the potential metabolic consequences of HFD warrant careful consideration.

The circadian system maintains highly stable rhythms over the lifespan. The precision of the circadian clock emerges from the network organization of the master clock located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Perineuronal nets (PNNs), condensed extracellular matrix structures that are composed of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans, help maintain synaptic connections in many brain regions after the end of critical developmental periods. We examine here if the SCN of mice, rats and hamsters...

Presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss (ARHL), is a prevalent sensory disorder in the elderly, driven by genetic factors, oxidative stress, inflammation responses, and cellular senescence. Despite its significance, the molecular mechanisms underlying ARHL remain poorly defined. In this study, we employed bioinformatic analysis of public gene expression datasets to identify differentially expressed genes in ARHL. Protein-protein interaction network analysis further nominated LCN2 as a hub gene....

A receptor for glycation end products (RAGE) plays a key role in the pathogenesis of many chronic diseases associated with aging. Acting as a multi-ligand sensor, RAGE is able to bind a wide range of stimuli, which fuels inflammation. This makes it a key link between garb-aging and inflammaging. We propose that RAGE functions as the missing molecular link between garb-aging, the progressive buildup of biological waste, and inflammaging, the chronic inflammatory state that drives degenerative...

Genetic information in cells flows from DNA to RNA to proteins, which form molecular machines. During normal ageing, cell intrinsic and environmental factors alter this flow of information by damaging DNA in cells, including postmitotic neurons. Damage to DNA is associated with age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). We previously reported an increase in DNA repair mechanisms in a fly model of AD. However, the causal mechanisms underlying somatic mutations in AD...

Sortilin (SORT1) is a lipoprotein receptor that shows genome-wide association with hypercholesterolaemia, explained by its ability to control hepatic output of lipoproteins. Although SORT1 also shows genome-wide association with Alzheimer disease and frontotemporal lobe dementia, the most prevalent forms of age-related dementias, sortilin's contribution to human brain lipid metabolism and health remains unclear. Here we show that sortilin mediates neuronal uptake of polyunsaturated fatty acids...

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common age-induced degenerative joint disease associated with synovial inflammation, subchondral bone remodeling, and cartilage degradation. One of the significant emerging causes of OA progression is senescent cell accumulation within the joint compartment during lifespan. Currently, there are no therapeutic approaches nor stratification tools that rely on the senescence burden in OA. In this study, we identified the b-series ganglioside 3 (GD3) as new senescent...

Frailty is a major health concern associated with aging and has been linked to gut microbiome composition, especially in elderly individuals needing care. People with HIV (PWH) present high risk of early-onset frailty. This study examines the relationship between frailty and the gut microbiome, with an emphasis on sex-based differences in PWH. Data were drawn from 268 participants in the New Orleans Alcohol Use in HIV (NOAH) Study, including 16S microbiome sequencing from stool samples, cytokine...

Biological aging clocks across organ systems and tissues have advanced understanding of human aging and disease. In this study, we expand this framework to develop seven magnetic resonance imaging-based multi-organ biological age gaps (MRIBAGs), including the brain, heart, liver, adipose tissue, spleen, kidney and pancreas. Using data from 313,645 individuals curated by the MULTI Consortium, we link the seven MRIBAGs to 2,923 plasma proteins, 327 metabolites and 6,477,810 common genetic...

Ovarian aging plays a pivotal role in female reproductive health, with implications for treatment strategies and quality of life. However, the potential of a single pharmaceutical agent to mitigate primate ovarian aging remains largely unexplored. Our 3.3-year study in monkeys demonstrates that oral vitamin C has geroprotective effects against ovarian aging. Vitamin C diminishes key aging biomarkers, including oxidative stress and follicular depletion. Using a single-cell transcriptomic clock,...

BACKGROUND: For more than three decades, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) has provided a framework to quantify health loss due to diseases, injuries, and associated risk factors. This paper presents GBD 2023 findings on disease and injury burden and risk-attributable health loss, offering a global audit of the state of world health to inform public health priorities. This work captures the evolving landscape of health metrics across age groups, sexes, and...

BACKGROUND: Comprehensive, comparable, and timely estimates of demographic metrics-including life expectancy and age-specific mortality-are essential for evaluating, understanding, and addressing trends in population health. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of timely and all-cause mortality estimates for being able to respond to changing trends in health outcomes, showing a strong need for demographic analysis tools that can produce all-cause mortality estimates more rapidly with...

BACKGROUND: Timely and comprehensive analyses of causes of death stratified by age, sex, and location are essential for shaping effective health policies aimed at reducing global mortality. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2023 provides cause-specific mortality estimates measured in counts, rates, and years of life lost (YLLs). GBD 2023 aimed to enhance our understanding of the relationship between age and cause of death by quantifying the probability of...