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Science, Volume 387, Issue 6736, February 2025.

Science, Volume 387, Issue 6736, February 2025.

Science, Volume 387, Issue 6736, February 2025.

NIH is appealing loss of some lab leaders among in-house research program while bracing for the next actions from Trump administration

Uncertain funding, government firings, and distressed universities hit vulnerable groups especially hard

Spacecraft with gather and analyze infrared light in new ways to explain why our universe is “boring”

Temporary order blocking the change extended until a decision is handed down

A microglia subpopulation termed "dark microglia" has been associated with aging and neurodegeneration, although its role has remained elusive. New research from Flury et al. in this issue of Neuron shows that dark microglia drive neurodegeneration via secretion of toxic lipids.¹.

The early pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease (PD) is poorly understood. We analyzed 2,920 Olink-measured plasma proteins in 51,804 UK Biobank participants, identifying 859 incident PD cases after 14.45 years. We found 38 PD-related proteins, with six of the top ten validated in the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) cohort. ITGAV, HNMT and ITGAM showed consistent significant association (hazard ratio: 0.11-0.57, P = 6.90 × 10^(-24) to 2.10 × 10^(-11)). Lipid metabolism...

A microglia subpopulation termed "dark microglia" has been associated with aging and neurodegeneration, although its role has remained elusive. New research from Flury et al. in this issue of Neuron shows that dark microglia drive neurodegeneration via secretion of toxic lipids.¹.

INTRODUCTION: One important aspect of walking aid use is transferring safely to the aid from sitting and transferring back to the chair after walking, since these activities have been associated with falls in older adults. Standard frames require their user to push off the chair or ask for help from a carer, which may over time lead to back pain. This study's aim was to assess whether novel handgrips located above the rear feet of a walking frame would facilitate safe transfer as compared to...

Oxidative stress plays a key role in aging and related diseases, including neurodegeneration, cancer, and organ failure. Copper (Cu), a redox-active metal ion, generates reactive oxygen species (ROS), and its dysregulation contributes to aging. Here, we develop activity-based imaging probes for the sensitive detection of Cu(I) and show that labile hepatic Cu activity increases with age, paralleling a decline in ALDH1A1 activity, a protective hepatic enzyme. We also observe an age-related...

Neuronal accumulation and spread of pathological α-synuclein (α-syn) fibrils are key events in Parkinson's disease (PD) pathophysiology. However, the neuronal mechanisms underlying the uptake of α-syn fibrils remain unclear. In this work, we identified FAM171A2 as a PD risk gene that affects α-syn aggregation. Overexpressing FAM171A2 promotes α-syn fibril endocytosis and exacerbates the spread and neurotoxicity of α-syn pathology. Neuronal-specific knockdown of FAM171A2 expression shows...

Understanding the evolving dynamics of the brain throughout life is pivotal for anticipating and evaluating individual health. While previous research has described age effects on spectral properties of neural signals, it remains unclear which ones are most indicative of age-related processes. This study addresses this gap by analyzing resting-state data obtained from magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 350 adults (18 to 88 y). We employed advanced time-series analysis at the brain region level and...

Longitudinal imaging data are routinely acquired for health studies and patient monitoring. A central goal in longitudinal studies is tracking relevant change over time. Traditional methods remove nuisance variation with custom pipelines to focus on significant changes. In this work, we present a machine learning-based method that automatically ignores irrelevant changes and extracts the time-varying signal of interest. Our method, called Learning-based Inference of Longitudinal imAge Changes...

There is growing evidence that higher intermuscular fat (IMF) is associated with worse processing speed, measured by the digit symbol substitution test (DSST) in older adults. However, the underlying biological mechanisms are not well understood. Considering that both muscle and the brain are metabolically active organs, we sought to identify metabolites that may explain the IMF-DSST association. We assessed 613 plasma metabolites in 2388 participants from the Health, Aging, and Body Composition...

Chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment (CICI), commonly referred to as "chemobrain," is a frequent and debilitating side effect experienced by cancer survivors treated with paclitaxel (PTX). Preclinical models have shown that PTX promotes cerebromicrovascular endothelial cell senescence, leading to chronic blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption and neuroinflammation. Conversely, the elimination of senescent cells through senolytic therapies has been shown to restore BBB integrity, reduce...

The increasing number of cancer survivors has brought heightened attention to the side effects of cancer therapies, including chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment (CRCI, commonly referred to as "chemobrain"). Cisplatin and methotrexate, commonly used first-line chemotherapeutics in gynecologic oncology for cancers such as breast, ovarian, and bladder cancer, are clinically associated with long-term cognitive deficits. Building on our previous preclinical studies demonstrating that...

A better education could explain the improvement in longevity

Thousands of U.K. “design registrations” sold to Indian academics in past 2 years, new research finds