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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.

Epigenetic clocks have emerged as potential biomarkers of aging due to their association with morbidity and mortality. They have recently gained traction as outcome measurements for anti-aging interventions. However, as the number of new epigenetic clocks continues to grow, different clocks may not agree on the effect of an intervention. This raises the question of when researchers can trust epigenetic clock results. In this study, we find that when extending previously published single-clock...

Vitamin D deficiency has been implicated in biological processes linked to aging and organismal resilience, yet its relationship to long-term systemic aging trajectories remains incompletely characterized. We analyzed longitudinal electronic health record data from two large healthcare systems: Leumit Health Services (LHS), a nationwide Israeli health organization, and TriNetX, a federated US research network. We examined more than 1.67 million serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] measurements...

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ban on hunting for new viruses in wildlife is at odds with program’s mission, researchers say

The agency spent its full budget, but left many applicants out of luck

Despite prolific genomic data from individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD), translation into treatments has lagged. Here we applied Mendelian randomization to multiple AD genome-wide association studies and functional multiomics datasets to nominate druggable targets, identifying 19 targets for individuals of European ancestry and 7 for African ancestry. This included epoxide hydrolase 2 (EPHX2), for which we identified a protective missense variant (p.Arg287Gln). Experiments in induced...

Chronological age accounts for much of the variance in structural brain measures, yet aging is spatially distributed, modality-dependent and often nonlinear, features that conventional T1-only brain-age models overlook. We introduce a population-calibrated, multimodal framework in 2,796 adults that integrates gray-matter volume with diffusion-derived metrics to fit linear and quadratic age-association profiles across cortical and subcortical regions. We define the Age of Structural Transition...

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Oocyte activation and follicular development are fundamental for fertility in mammals, yet the dynamics of activated oocytes (Act-Oos) remain unclear. Here we use a Zp3-based lineage-tracing mouse model to label Act-Oos and reconstruct their developmental trajectories and folliculogenesis across the lifespan. We uncovered age-dependent heterogeneity in Act-Oo longevity: some oocytes activated in early adulthood progressed rapidly, whereas others persisted into late or even terminal reproductive...