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Scientists discovered that more than 500 species of vesper bats possess two separate sets of antibody genes, an immune arrangement never before found in mammals. The surprising system could help explain how bats tolerate so many viruses without becoming seriously ill.

Studies cap 20-year project to map an insect’s entire nervous system—and understand how it works

Aging may be partly fueled by immune cells losing their ability to clear away damaged, inflammation-promoting cells. Blocking a single receptor restored that cleanup process in mice, reducing inflammation and helping their organs, muscles, and memory remain remarkably youthful.

BACKGROUND: As individuals with Down syndrome age, they face high risks of Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy. With symptomatic Alzheimer's disease, late-onset myoclonic epilepsy in Down syndrome (LOMEDS) often emerges. We aimed to examine how epilepsy develops in Down syndrome, its timing relative to Alzheimer's disease symptom onset, and its effect on prognosis.

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CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: These findings suggest that HCBS as an aggregate service category is not associated with reduced elder abuse. Future research is needed to examine the role of individual services in elder abuse prevention.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The evidence is uncertain about the effect of initial EHC participation on the 5-year risk of functional disability or death; the point estimate is compatible with a modest benefit, but the 95% CI included the null. These findings neither support expansion nor justify discontinuation of the EHC program for preventing entry into LTC, and call for replication in additional cohorts before policy changes are considered.

Many older adults prefer aging in place, but complex medical and social care needs and fragmented care systems are barriers to maintaining independence at home. Choose Home was implemented at the Veteran Affairs Boston Health Care System in September 2023 to address a critical care gap for patients who seek to remain independent at home but are at high risk for acute care hospitalizations and institutionalization in long-term care facilities. This report describes a subpopulation (n = 16) of...

The metabolic mechanisms by which aging blunts CD8^(+) T cell antitumor and pathogen defense remain unknown. We demonstrate that the aged microenvironment induces CD8^(+) T cell exhaustion by reducing β-hydroxybutyrate (3HB) bioavailability. Aging represses hepatic BDH1-dependent 3HB synthesis, restricting SLC16A1-mediated 3HB uptake. Hepatic BDH1 ablation recapitulates age-associated CD8^(+) T cell dysfunction, compromising antiviral and antitumor immunity, whereas 3HB supplementation reverses...

Asymptomatic infections are traditionally considered harmless, reflecting effective immune control and the absence of clinical disease. Yet growing evidence shows that these silent encounters with microbes are far from being immunologically neutral. Throughout life, humans are challenged by a remarkably broad spectrum of viruses and bacteria, including latent pathogens that persist, fluctuate, or periodically reactivate without producing significant symptoms. From an evolutionary standpoint,...

Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) is a premature aging disorder affecting tissues of mesenchymal origin. Most patients harbor a c.1824C>T/p.G608= variant, commonly described as G608G, in exon 11 of LMNA that leads to aberrant splicing and production of the toxic progerin protein. In addition to cardiovascular, dermal, and adipose tissue deterioration, HGPS mouse models also develop progressive bone dysplasia that occurs in patients. Here we characterize the efficacy of in vivo mutation...

Aging kidneys exhibit accumulation of senescent cells together with sterile low-grade inflammation. However, the spatial organization of senescence-associated immune cell accumulation in the aging kidney remains poorly defined. We systematically analyzed kidneys from young, middle-aged, and aged mice, focusing on the spatial relationship between senescent tubular cells and distinct immune cell populations. Senescent tubular cells showed significant local enrichment of immune cells, with...

Prolonged crises expose older adults to chronic psychological and social stress, irregular nutrition, reduced physical activity, reduced access to health care, and interruptions in treatment of chronic disease. Together, these factors can compound age-related vulnerabilities and increase the risk of metabolic deterioration, multimorbidity and functional decline. This Perspective argues that prolonged crises should be viewed not only as social or psychological events, but also as conditions that...

Is there a limit to human lifespan? We examine upper-tail lifespan dynamics in 46 countries using reliable period life-table data. The characteristic life ( α ), the model-based upper-tail parameter ( ω ), and their interval ( δ = ω - α ) are estimated annually from the 1990s onward. Across countries, α increases steadily, whereas ω declines or stabilizes and δ narrows, a pattern consistent with postponed and increasingly concentrated late-life mortality rather than unlimited upper-tail...

Workplace stress is an increasingly recognized determinant of both workforce well-being and healthy aging. However, few longitudinal studies have systematically integrated stress assessment into large occupational cohorts with an explicit focus on aging processes. The Semmelweis Study, launched in 2024, addresses this gap by embedding validated stress assessment tools into a comprehensive, multidisciplinary framework designed to explore the biological, psychological, and social determinants of...

Multiomic profiling provides a comprehensive physiological overview at the molecular level, but understanding of its spatiotemporal dynamics remains limited in human populations. We profiled longitudinal whole-blood gene expression and metabolite levels in 335 females over 8 years. Levels of 5061 genes and 181 metabolites changed over time, with individual trajectories often diverging from population-level trends. Longitudinally variable genes showed cell type specificity and enrichment for...

CONCLUSION: Rare and common variants in AD- and neurodegenerative biomarker-associated genes with increased frequency in India compared to other populations may impact blood levels of neurodegenerative biomarkers in South Asians.

Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) signaling plays a critical role in brain function and declines significantly with aging. However, how these changes occur across different brain regions and cell types, and how they contribute to behavioral dysfunction, remains poorly understood. The prefrontal cortex (PFC), a key regulator of cognitive, emotional, and social behaviors, is particularly vulnerable to age-related changes. Here, we investigated age-associated changes in IGF1 and its receptor...

Falls, delirium and functional decline are commonly treated as distinct geriatric outcomes despite sharing vulnerabilities in sensory integration, gait regulation, attention and physiological reserve. We propose silent neurovestibular frailty as a conceptual model describing a latent ageing phenotype in which vestibular dysfunction, dual-task gait deterioration and sensitivity to cognitive load interact before overt disability becomes apparent. This construct is presented as a...