Aggregator

Microglia, the brain's resident immune cells, are crucial for maintaining healthy brain homeostasis. However, as the brain ages, microglia can shift from a neuroprotective to a neurotoxic phenotype, contributing to chronic inflammation and promoting neurodegenerative processes. Despite the importance of understanding microglial aging, there are currently few human in vitro models to study these processes. To address this gap, we have developed a model in which human microglia undergo accelerated...

Cellular senescence is an irreversible form of cell-cycle arrest caused by excessive stress or damage. While various biomarkers of cellular senescence have been proposed, there are currently no universal, stand-alone indicators of this condition. The field largely relies on the combined detection of multiple biomarkers to differentiate senescent cells from non-senescent cells. Here we introduce a new approach: unbiased cell culture selections to identify senescent cell-specific folded DNA...

Rapamycin (RAPA) and related mTOR-inhibitors have been shown to enhance healthy aging in animal models (2-10) and to be generally safe and tolerable in older people (11-13). However, studies to assess their effects on specific age-related pathologies in humans are limited. Since improvements in cardiovascular function with RAPA treatment have been reported in preclinical studies (5, 9, 10, 14-17), we posited that RAPA could be similarly efficacious in humans. Towards this end, we performed a...

Periodontal disease (PD) is a chronic inflammatory condition linked to systemic health issues, yet its relationship with intrinsic capacity (IC)-a key determinant of healthy aging-remained underexplored. The present study investigated the associations between moderate/severe PD and IC domains in older adults in a cross-sectional analysis from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2009-2014. From the 30,468 NHANES subjects, we included participants aged ≥ 60 years with...

The interaction between sleep, circadian rhythms and cardiovascular resilience is a crucial yet underexplored research area with important public health implications. Disruptions in sleep and circadian rhythms exacerbate hypertension, diabetes mellitus and obesity, conditions that are increasingly prevalent globally and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. A National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute workshop examined these connections, as well as the emerging concept of cardiovascular...

Political directives have undermined agency's independence and record of supporting the best basic research

More than 1200 scientists and developers explore how large language models can be applied to materials science and chemistry

In games with toys, “gifted” dogs can extend names to new objects with the same purpose as known ones

Flies, beetles, wasps, and other creatures from the Cretaceous reveal ecosystems details of the Gondwanan supercontinent

Alzheimer's disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, is characterized by a decline in brain volume and neuronal loss, with early symptoms often presenting as short-term memory impairment. Automated classification of Alzheimer's disease remains a significant challenge due to inter-patient variability in brain morphology, aging effects, and overlapping anatomical features across different stages. While traditional machine learning techniques, such as Support Vector Machines (SVMs) and...