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Should nicotine be regulated like a narcotic? A Pacific nation makes the case
Scientists found an early depression clue hidden in children’s eyes
Depression appears to change what children notice in the faces around them, but the effect depends on family history. Kids with a higher inherited risk became more focused on sadness, while lower-risk children lost some of their natural attention to happy expressions.
10 surprising ways diabetes and dementia are connected
Diabetes and dementia appear to be closely intertwined, with each condition potentially influencing the other. Problems with insulin and glucose can affect the brain’s energy supply, increase inflammation, and damage blood vessels linked to memory loss. Researchers are also finding that some popular diabetes medications may lower dementia risk. These discoveries are opening new possibilities for protecting brain health as people age.
New study explores potential cross-species spread of chronic wasting disease
A new study found that chronic wasting disease can sometimes spread silently, with infectious prions present even in animals that show no symptoms. While there is no confirmed human risk, researchers say the disease’s ability to evolve and spread across species warrants close attention.
Most people who stop GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic eventually return
Many people prescribed GLP-1 drugs for type 2 diabetes (such as Victoza, Ozempic, or tirzepatide) stop taking them, but a surprising number later return to treatment. Researchers found that newer medications appear to keep patients on therapy longer, while side effects remain a major reason for discontinuation.
Semaglutide (Ozempic) linked to fewer bone fractures despite greater weight loss
A large real-world study suggests semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus) may offer an unexpected bonus for people with type 2 diabetes: stronger protection against bone fractures while delivering greater weight loss. Researchers analyzing health records from nearly 60,000 adults found that people taking semaglutide experienced about 15% fewer fractures than those using other common weight-loss medications, despite losing more weight.
Interpretable graph-based models on multimodal biomedical data integration: a technical review and benchmarking
Integrating diverse biomedical modalities is essential for robust healthcare insights, and graph-based models are increasingly used to capture complex relational structures. Yet, their clinical translation hinges on interpretability. This review surveys interpretable graph-based models applied to multimodal biomedical data, highlighting dominant trends in disease classification, static graph construction, and post-hoc explainability. We categorize explainable artificial intelligence (XAI)...
Multi-omic analysis of deep learning-derived phenotypes links ophthalmic imaging to cardiovascular and neurological traits
The eye is a recognized source of biomarkers for cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease risk. Here we characterize the breadth of these associations and identify biological axes that may mediate them. Using UK Biobank data, we developed a multi-omic analysis pipeline integrating physiological, radiomic, metabolomic and genomic information. We trained retinal adversarial autoencoders to represent optical coherence tomography images and color fundus photographs as 256-dimensional embeddings....
Human iPSC-NSC-Derived Extracellular Vesicles Can Alleviate Alzheimer's Disease-Linked Impairments in Mitochondria, mTOR Signaling, Autophagy, and Hippocampal Neurogenesis
Intranasal (IN) administrations of extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from human-induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived neural stem cells (hNSCs) have shown promise in reducing chronic neuroinflammation mediated by microglia and astrocytes in 5x familial Alzheimer's disease (5xFAD) mice, a model for early-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD). The current study rigorously investigated whether treatment with hiPSC-NSC-EVs could also alleviate several other neuropathological changes contributing...
Mitochondria and brain aging: From cell-specific dysfunction to intercellular cooperation
Mitochondria are essential for brain energy metabolism and are increasingly recognized as key contributors to brain aging. Although neurons are exceptionally vulnerable to age-related mitochondrial decline, emerging evidence reveals that glial and vascular cells also exhibit distinct mitochondrial impairments. This review synthesizes recent advances in our understanding of mitochondrial dysfunction across specific brain regions and diverse cell types, highlighting subcellular...
ZNF512B safeguards genome integrity at regulatory regions to repress the SASP and inflammation
Cellular senescence drives aging and disease largely through the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), yet its regulatory mechanisms remain unclear. Using a SASP reporter combined with a CRISPR-Cas9 screen targeting active regulatory elements, we identify the zinc-finger protein ZNF512B as a key suppressor of the SASP. ZNF512B loss induces DNA damage, activates cGAS-STING signaling, and triggers inflammatory transcriptional reprogramming. In contrast, ZNF512B promotes preferential...
Macrophage regulation of extracellular matrix remodeling in aging skeletal muscle
The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a dynamic structural network that supports tissue architecture and regulates cell function. It is primarily composed of collagens, elastin, proteoglycans, and glycoproteins, which are produced by canonical and non-canonical ECM-producing cells. During aging, the ECM undergoes progressive changes in structure and composition, a process recently recognized as the 13th hallmark of aging. In skeletal muscle (SKM), age-associated ECM remodeling, largely regulated by...
Evolution of increased longevity and slowed ageing in a genus of tropical butterfly
Evolution has given rise to lifespans in extant species ranging from days to centuries. Given that mechanisms of ageing are highly conserved, studying long-lived lineages across the animal kingdom could yield insights relevant for healthy ageing in humans. The long lifespans reported for the Heliconius butterfly genus position it as a promising new model system for such studies, but its potential is limited by a paucity of available data. Here, we collate data from commercial butterfly houses,...
Inferring accumulation times of mitochondrial DNA deletion mutants from cross-sectional single-cell data: methodological framework and validation
The accumulation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletion mutants in post-mitotic cells is a hallmark of mammalian ageing and a key contributor to tissue decline in skeletal muscle and neurons. A transcription-coupled replication model predicts that deletions affecting a negative feedback mechanism gain a selective replication advantage, leading to relatively short accumulation times for mutant takeover. However, these accumulation times are experimentally inaccessible since single-cell...
Tech titans are hacking their bodies for a longer life: is there science behind their methods?
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The oocyte-enriched metabolite serotonin alleviates cellular senescence and aging phenotypes in the mouse
Whether metabolites enriched at early developmental stages affect cellular and organismal aging remains unclear. In this study, we comprehensively profiled the metabolic landscape of mouse oocytes in comparison to cleavage-stage embryos. Our analysis revealed that oocytes display accumulation of reductive metabolites that diminish following fertilization. Notably, we identified serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) as an oocyte-enriched metabolite with protective roles in aging. The underlying...
Nuclear export of R-loop by the DDX1 and XPO1 complex promotes senescence-associated secretory phenotype and inflammaging
Cellular senescence contributes to inflammaging in part through the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). R-loops, three-stranded nucleic acid structures, contribute to innate immune response in cancers; however, the role of R-loops in senescence and inflammaging remains largely unknown. Here we show that nuclear-derived cytoplasmic R-loops promote the SASP and inflammaging. We detect an accumulation of nuclear-derived R-loops in the cytoplasm of senescent cells with an enrichment in...
Intrinsic capacity and mortality in community-dwelling octogenarians: a network analysis from the ilSIRENTE study
Intrinsic capacity (IC) is a key construct within the healthy ageing framework. However, the correlations among IC domains and their association with health outcomes in very old adults remain unclear. This study aimed to characterise the relationships among IC domains using network analysis and to examine their association with mortality in community-dwelling octogenarians from the Invecchiamento e Longevità nel Sirente (ilSIRENTE) cohort. IC was calculated as a summary score rescaled to a 0-100...
Behavioral variability and preparatory ERPs as neurobehavioral markers of mild cognitive impairment risk in older adults
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) represents a transitional stage between normal aging and dementia, yet sensitive behavioral and neural markers of early cognitive decline remain to be fully characterized. Increasing evidence suggests that instability of proactive control mechanisms, rather than generalized slowing, may play a critical role in early cognitive impairment. The present study investigated whether behavioral variability and preparatory neural activity constitute neurobehavioral markers...
Age- and Sex-specific Prevalence, Longitudinal Trends and Factors of Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic Syndrome Stages among Chinese Adults
Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic (CKM) syndrome is uncharacterized in Chinese adults across ages, including centenarians. From three cohorts, age- and sex-standardized CKM prevalence showed nearly 90% stage≥1 and >18% advanced. Prevalence rose with age; advanced CKM reached 100% in male centenarians. Age, sex, smoking, and BMI were risk factors for advanced CKM, with faster male progression. These findings highlight growing disease burden in China's aging population and inform future CKM...