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Only one workout helped older adults lose fat and keep muscle
A six-month study suggests that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) may offer older adults a powerful advantage: losing body fat while keeping their muscle. Unlike moderate-intensity workouts, which led to a small loss of lean muscle, HIIT preserved it while also improving body composition around the waist.
Bacteria turn a virus’ own weapon against it
Researchers have uncovered a new way bacteria detect viral attacks: a virus-produced enzyme cuts a bacterial sensor protein, triggering a self-destructing immune response. The discovery could lead to more effective phage therapies against antibiotic-resistant bacteria and provide insight into ancient immune mechanisms shared with humans.
Nearly 30,000 people tested quit-smoking methods. One stood out
Nicotine e-cigarettes appear to help more smokers quit than patches, gum, and several other common approaches, according to a major review of 80 clinical trials. Researchers say regulated vaping products are not risk-free, but may be a significantly less harmful alternative for people who would otherwise continue smoking.
Scientists tested 5 natural compounds on cancer cells. One stood out
Five natural compounds, including curcumin and berberine, were tested for their effects on cancer cells and healthy muscle cells. All disrupted cancer cell energy production and pushed many of the cells into a non-dividing state, with curcumin producing the strongest overall effect. Curcumin also showed a relatively favorable safety profile, while some other compounds caused more toxicity.
FDA-approved epilepsy drug may help reverse osteoarthritis damage
Researchers at Yale have identified a promising new approach to osteoarthritis that could do more than simply ease pain. The epilepsy drug lacosamide appears to block a protein involved in both pain signaling and cartilage destruction, helping damaged joints shift back toward repair in preclinical studies.
NIH revives network to study emerging diseases—but its new restrictions baffle scientists
Ban on hunting for new viruses in wildlife is at odds with program’s mission, researchers say
NIH ends 2026 with a boost for early-career researchers, but new awards are down overall
The agency spent its full budget, but left many applicants out of luck
Protein damage and repair in aging: mechanisms, homeostasis and disease
Proteome integrity is continuously challenged by diverse forms of molecular damage, yet, in contrast to DNA, proteins have long been considered largely disposable rather than repairable. This view has shaped the prevailing paradigm of proteostasis, in which damaged proteins are primarily eliminated and replaced. However, emerging evidence from both prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems indicates that enzymatic protein repair is more widespread and functionally significant than previously...
Organoids for modeling cellular senescence and age-related pathology: From experimental reconstruction to mechanistic and translational applications
Cellular senescence, characterized by irreversible cell cycle arrest and the acquisition of a senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), is a fundamental hallmark of aging and a key driver of numerous age-related diseases. However, conventional two-dimensional cell cultures and animal models fail to fully replicate the complex cellular architecture, multicellular interactions, and tissue-specific microenvironments in which senescence develops in vivo. Organoids, three-dimensional tissue...
Synergistic reversal of mesenchymal stem cell senescence by engineered exosomal delivery of a dual miR-195/miR-188 sponge
CONCLUSION: In conclusion, exosome-mediated delivery of a dual miRNA sponge represents a mechanism-driven strategy to reprogram senescence-associated gene networks and restore MSC function. This approach provides a promising cell-free nucleic acid therapeutic platform for regenerative medicine applications.
Computational gait analysis in the 3xTg-AD mouse model: evidence of progressive alterations in locomotor coordination
INTRODUCTION: Gait alterations have been proposed as functional indicators of neural dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease; however, their ability to capture disease-associated locomotor changes in preclinical models remains insufficiently characterized.
Photo-downregulation of SIRT4 mitigates aging in mice by enhancing H3K9ac via fatty acid metabolism
As organisms age, mitochondrial metabolic activity declines, and disrupted gene expression regulation mediated by histone acetylation induces the emergence of senescent physiological phenotypes in tissues. In this study, we found that periodic exposure to red light significantly increased histone H3 Lys9 acetylation (H3K9ac) levels in the tissues and organs of aged mice. Following red light exposure, silent information regulation factor 4 (SIRT4) protein levels in keratinocytes were notably...
HLH-30/TFEB is necessary for chromatin reorganization and maintenance of cell quiescence during starvation in C. elegans
Cellular quiescence is a low metabolic, non-proliferative state critical for tissue maintenance and regenerative capacity, with broad implications for aging and age-related diseases. In Caenorhabditis elegans, L1 developmental arrest upon hatching in the absence of food provides a robust in vivo model to study quiescence. Here, we investigate the roles of the transcription factors HLH-30/TFEB and DAF-16/FOXO during L1 arrest. We show that HLH-30 and DAF-16 collaborate to ensure survival under...
The histone methyltransferase complex subunit RBBP5 serves as a central epigenetic regulator of proteostasis dynamics
Proteostasis is essential for cellular health, with its disruption contributing to aging, neurodegeneration, and metabolic disorders. While the upstream proteotoxic stress-sensing and protein-folding mechanisms in the ER and cytosol are well studied, the transcriptional regulation of proteostasis remains incompletely understood, particularly concerning the temporal epigenome dynamics, chromatin landscapes, and co-regulatory networks underlying dynamic proteostasis control. Traditionally,...
Reflections on the early days of the DNA damage response pathway in eukaryotes
The DNA damage response (DDR) pathway has emerged as the central signaling network that preserves genome stability by using sensors to monitor the genome for aberrant structures and establishing signaling centers that promote organismal homeostasis. This review revisits the formative years of DDR research, focusing on the genetic dissection of the pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and its evolution into a broadly conserved eukaryotic signaling system. Early studies of ribonucleotide reductase...
Epigenetic aging and transposon dysregulation reflect size-related lifespan compression in dogs
The extraordinary lifespan variation in domestic dogs provides a natural experiment for testing how intrinsic rates of biological aging shape lifespan. Using 1640 methylomes from 894 dogs, we developed an epigenetic clock that predicted mortality and demonstrated that epigenetic aging is fastest early in life. At orthologs of human age-associated genes, dogs exhibited concordant age effects on promoter methylation, highlighting conserved remodeling of immune pathways. We found that larger and...
Time-Restricted Feeding Delays Cardiovascular Aging by Increasing Acetic Acid Through Remodeling Gut Microbiota
Time-restricted feeding (TRF) restricts food intake to daily windows, yet its efficacy against vascular aging and underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that TRF attenuates angiotension II -induced accelerated vascular aging by reshaping gut microbiota, stabilizing microbial diversity, and elevating the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio. TRF preserved intestinal barrier integrity, upregulated tight junction proteins (Occludin, ZO-1, MUC2), reduced serum lipopolysaccharide, and...
Just 7 days of strength training started shrinking fat cells in mice
Just seven strength-training sessions helped obese mice shrink visceral fat cells and reactivate molecular pathways involved in burning stored fat, despite no change in overall body weight. The findings suggest some benefits of resistance exercise may begin long before weight loss becomes visible, though the results still need to be confirmed in humans.