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Ancient DNA reveals plague was already killing humans 5,500 years ago
Plague was already a deadly killer 5,500 years ago, long before cities, farming, or the rat-infested conditions usually linked to historic outbreaks. By analyzing ancient DNA from hunter-gatherer cemeteries in Siberia, researchers discovered early plague strains in nearly 40% of the individuals studied and found evidence of rapid family-based outbreaks that wiped out many children and young teenagers.
Poorer Physical Function Is Associated With Elevated Spatial Entropy in the Aging Brain Network Landscape
Life is a constant struggle against disorder. As we age, our ability to maintain internal order declines. In the healthy human brain, order is observable in the form of functionally segregated brain network communities that exhibit spatial consistency. These communities associate with distinct cognitive and physical functions. When mapped into the brain, they form a functional "landscape". We assessed the spatial disorder of these landscapes in older adults with a wide range of mobility using a...
Aging, Dauer, and Stature Phenotypes Are Conferred by Structure-Directed Missense Mutations in the Endogenous AGE-1/Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase Catalytic Subunit
Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) integrates insulin/IGF signaling (IIS) and Ras inputs to control lifespan, metabolism and growth. Yet the organismal consequences of selective structural perturbations remain poorly understood. Using structure-guided CRISPR/Cas9-dependent genome editing, we dissected functions of AGE-1, the sole Class IA PI3K catalytic subunit in Caenorhabditis elegans. An endogenously tagged AGE-1, containing a long flexible linker, epitope and fluorescent tag, retained full...
Atypical Tetracyclines Promote Longevity and Ferroptotic Neuroprotection via Translation Attenuation
Reducing protein synthesis extends lifespan across taxa, but pharmacological strategies to safely attenuate translation remain limited. Tetracyclines are clinically used antibiotics long observed to exert beneficial effects in age-associated diseases and extend lifespan in model organisms, though the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we systematically profiled commercially available tetracyclines and show that translation attenuation is a general property of the tetracycline class....
Endothelial KLF4 depletion drives age-related neurovascular dysfunction and neuropsychiatric impairment
Deterioration of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), including impaired neurovascular uncoupling, contributes to cognitive decline in aging. The BBB is formed principally by brain microvascular endothelial cells (ECs), and ECs throughout the body are enriched for the transcription factor Krüppel-like factor 4 (KLF4). Because KLF4 levels in ECs decrease with age, we tested whether that decline contributes to aging-related BBB deterioration, neurovascular dysfunction, and cognitive impairment. Using...
Age and early life adversity shape heterogeneity of the epigenome across tissues in macaques
Age and early life adversity (ELA) are key determinants of health, but whether they affect similar physiological mechanisms across tissues is unknown. We generated DNA methylation (DNAm) profiles across 14 tissues in 237 semi-free-ranging rhesus macaques with naturally occurring ELA. Age-associated DNAm was predominantly tissue dependent, yet tissue-specific epigenetic clocks showed that epigenetic aging was relatively consistent within individuals. ELA effects were adversity dependent, but each...
Targeting brain rhythms to support cognition in aging: a systematic review and meta-analysis of tACS across healthy aging, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's disease
Cognitive decline is a major challenge in aging. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) modulates neural oscillations, potentially aiding cognition. Due to variation in late-life tACS studies, we conducted the first meta-analysis in older adults (≥ 60 years) to estimate pooled cognitive effects and determine if protocol parameters explain outcome variability. We searched Medline/PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov (up to September 17, 2025) for studies examining...
Associations between frailty severity and dietary quality and food security among older Korean adults: a cross-sectional study
CONCLUSIONS: These findings emphasize the importance of sex-specific nutritional interventions and stable food supply systems for preventing frailty in aging populations.
Impact of Metformin on Healthspan-Related Outcomes and Incidence of Diseases of Aging in People with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review
Metformin use may be associated with reduced risk of all-cause mortality as well as prevent the onset of diseases of aging, namely cardiovascular diseases (CVD), cancer, and dementia. We systematically reviewed recent studies to determine whether metformin can promote healthspan in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). A comprehensive literature search was conducted using Medline, Embase, and Scopus for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and cohort studies evaluating the effect of...
Distinct aging-related profiles of allocentric knowledge recall following navigation in an immersive, naturalistic, city-like environment
Aging-related declines in spatial navigation pose significant challenges for older adults' independence and quality of life. Among navigational deficits, older adults have been shown to demonstrate deficits in utilizing allocentric (i.e., world-centered) information and rely on egocentric (i.e., body-centered) cues during navigation, resulting in reference frame bias. We investigated naturalistic navigation performance and allocentric knowledge formation in younger adults (N = 30) and older...
Neural frequency-tagging of syllables in naturalistic speech is sensitive to background noise and age-related hearing loss
INTRODUCTION: Healthy aging is often accompanied by a loss of hearing sensitivity and a reduced ability to understand speech in both quiet and noisy environments. From a physiological perspective, neural oscillations are thought to fundamentally contribute to parse the speech signal into meaningful units and to extract linguistically relevant information at multiple hierarchical levels. Given that syllables are essential structural elements of the speech signal that recur with quasi-rhythmic...
Age-dependent vulnerability to spatial memory interference in APP/PS1 mice
CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that amyloidosis is associated with reduced reliability of spatial memory performance and impaired handling of competing spatial information, particularly under conditions requiring flexible updating of overlapping mnemonic representations. The results further suggest increased vulnerability to interference-related spatial memory deficits with age. Together, these findings support the utility of the OUL paradigm for studying memory updating impairments in...
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It slices! It dices! Sashimi-Bot handles seafood with ease
Clues to the sloth’s sloth found in its genome
Cell transplant across the tree of life hints at how animals emerged
EU Omnibus proposal increases pesticide risks
Science, Ahead of Print.
Indium-free perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells with tin oxide recombination layer and electrodes
Science, Ahead of Print.