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Yale researchers have discovered that certain prescription drugs, healthy diets, and exercise can measurably slow biological aging, while popular anti-aging supplements appear largely ineffective. Their analysis of 51 studies could transform how scientists evaluate anti-aging treatments, although whether these biological changes actually extend life remains uncertain.

Smiling may not always make you happier, and new research suggests that forcing yourself to smile repeatedly could actually make you feel worse. In a University of Florida study involving more than 1,100 participants, researchers discovered that while a single artificial smile can provide a small mood boost, repeatedly faking smiles can erase that benefit or even reverse it.

A new study reveals that viral infections may leave behind hidden damage to the immune system long after symptoms disappear. Researchers found that mice recovering from an acute infection experienced lasting changes to their spleens and weakened immune responses, potentially leaving them more vulnerable to future threats. Surprisingly, prior vaccination completely prevented these harmful changes in the mouse model.

A study of more than 750,000 pregnancies found that early exposure to Ozempic, Wegovy, and similar drugs was not linked to increased pregnancy complications when used for weight loss, but was associated with a higher risk of premature birth when prescribed for diabetes. The surprising difference suggests that diabetes itself may be driving the risk, although researchers caution that the drugs' safety during pregnancy remains uncertain.

A major study of nearly 1,900 older adults suggests that stopping statins after age 70 may be relatively safe in the short term for people who have never experienced a heart attack or stroke. However, a higher rate of serious cardiovascular events or death during longer follow-up raises questions about the risks of discontinuing these widely prescribed medications.

Extraembryonic tissues and many cancers share unusual DNA methylation landscapes, but how these states arise remains unclear. Here, we use GATA6- and CDX2-driven reprogramming of mouse embryonic stem cells to track genome-wide epigenetic remodeling during acquisition of extraembryonic cell fates. Despite activating distinct transcriptional programs from non-overlapping genomic targets, both transcription factors trigger rapid and genomically synchronized convergence to cancer-like DNA...

Aging is a multifactorial process shaped by genetic, metabolic, and environmental factors. Yet one physical constant-gravity-has rarely been considered as a potential contributor to the aging process. This perspective explores the hypothesis that chronic exposure to Earth's gravity, through its lifelong hydrostatic effects on cerebral blood flow (CBF), may represent an unrecognized driver of systemic aging. The brain, particularly deep regulatory centers in the hypothalamus and brainstem,...

Cardiac aging is traditionally framed as a progressive loss of energetic capacity, yet accumulating evidence indicates that iron-dependent lipid peroxidation and ferroptotic susceptibility may contribute to age-related myocardial vulnerability. Here, we integrate evidence linking mitochondrial quality control, membrane lipid remodeling, antioxidant capacity, and iron handling to the emergence of a ferroptosis-permissive state in aging cardiomyocytes. We further propose that aerobic exercise may...

The ability to recover skeletal muscle after periods of disuse declines with age leading to persistent deficits in strength and function that extend beyond muscle mass loss. Here, we investigated whether age-related alterations in lipid remodeling contribute to impairment in skeletal muscle recovery following disuse. Lipidomic and oxylipin profiling revealed that aged mouse muscle is characterized by sustained phosphatidylcholine and omega-6-dependent COX-prostaglandin signaling during early...

Natural products derived from traditional medicines are valuable sources of potential geroprotective compounds; however, their translation into therapeutic candidates is limited by chemical complexity, polypharmacology, limited mechanistic resolution, and lengthy experimental validation. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers an emerging framework for integrating chemical, pharmacological, multi-omics, imaging, and literature derived data to accelerate natural product anti-aging research. This...

Continuum elastic shells with residual stresses can exhibit complex motions that require vanishing elastic energy to excite, also called geometric zero modes, enabling them to be driven by weak and generic energy inputs. Despite recent interest in these modes, we understand very little about their dynamical properties. Plates with a curved, rather than flat, in-plane geometry, also called non-Euclidean plates, are one example in which residual stresses and geometry combine to produce a continuum...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) exhibits region- and cell-type-specific vulnerability, yet the underlying regulatory mechanisms remain poorly defined. We performed integrated single-nucleus RNA-seq and ATAC-seq of human hippocampus to resolve gene regulatory architecture in AD. By linking chromatin accessibility to transcription, we identified more than 1000 disease-associated cis-regulatory interactions, highlighting coordinated epigenomic-transcriptomic remodeling. Excitatory cornu ammonis (EX.CA)...

Meningiomas exhibit substantial molecular, anatomical, and microenvironmental heterogeneity, yet the spatial organization of their lipid biology remains poorly understood. Emerging lipidomic studies demonstrate extensive remodeling of membrane, signaling, and mitochondrial lipid classes, with profiles varying according to molecular genotype, histopathological grade, and potentially patient characteristics. In parallel, developmental, single-cell, and spatial studies have revealed the meninges...

BackgroundUnderstanding changes in long-term care (LTC) applicants' needs informs service planning.ObjectiveTo examine trends in functional impairment and multimorbidity among Hong Kong's publicly funded LTC applicants during 2001-2019.MethodsWe analyzed interRAI assessments from 315,556 applicants aged ≥60. Hierarchical mixed-effects models estimated trends in physical and cognitive impairment, loneliness, and multimorbidity, adjusting for age, birth cohort, and sociodemographic factors....

ObjectiveHispanic individuals are understudied in cognitive aging research and are disproportionately exposed to crime, yet the cognitive consequences of this exposure remain unclear. We examined whether county-level crime moderates the association between physical functioning (PF) and cognitive change among Mexican Americans aged 75 years and older without cognitive impairment at baseline.MethodsParticipants included 1,189 older adults from the Hispanic Established Populations for the...

Aging research has advanced along two largely parallel paths. Experimental biology has transformed aging research by establishing that aging is biologically malleable and identifying conserved molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate lifespan and healthspan. In parallel, population research has revealed substantial heterogeneity in human aging and identified social, environmental, behavioral, and genetic factors associated with differences in aging trajectories. Despite a shared goal of...

Mild disruptions to mitochondrial function can lead to the activation of an adaptive program that extends animal lifespan. The mitochondrial unfolded protein response (UPRmt) is associated with such conditions that prolong lifespan. We previously discovered that methionine restriction, resulting from the genetic loss of methionine synthase in C. elegans, activated the UPRmt and extended lifespan. Here, we demonstrate that methionine restriction activates the UPRmt and delays aging within the...