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Social housing is desirable for the health and well-being of laboratory mice, as social interactions with conspecifics influence both behavioral and physiological outcomes. Although group housing benefits social species, it can introduce variability in mortality outcomes, and raise welfare concerns, particularly with the emergence of aggression or fluctuating cage densities. Despite this, few studies have evaluated how changes in the number of living cagemates over time are associated with...

Biological regulation is an intricate process involving many layers of complexity, including at the RNA level. Alternative splicing is crucial in the regulation of which components of a protein-coding gene are spliced into a translatable mRNA. During ageing, splicing becomes dysregulated, and alternative splicing is implicated in disease and known anti-ageing treatments such as dietary restriction (DR) and mTOR suppression. In prior work, we have shown that DR and mTOR suppression modulate the...

Ferroptosis, an iron-dependent form of regulated cell death, is increasingly recognized as a key contributor to aging-associated skeletal muscle degeneration and dysfunction. However, the interactive effects of aging, sex, and exercise modality on ferroptosis regulatory markers at the histological, protein, and gene expression levels remain poorly understood. Male (n = 23) and female (n = 23) mice aged 7 (young) and 17 (aged) months were assigned to sedentary control, voluntary wheel running, or...

CONCLUSION: RT is an effective intervention for improving cognition, memory, depression, and quality of life in older adults with cognitive impairment or dementia. Patient age, intervention frequency, and setting are potential moderators of its cognitive efficacy, providing actionable insights for optimizing clinical RT protocols.

CONCLUSION: Coal use increases the risk of cognitive decline, whereas higher social engagement is protective; these influences operate independently without evidence of interaction. Reducing household reliance on coal while promoting meaningful social participation may represent complementary strategies to preserve cognitive health in aging populations.

Epigenetic mechanisms, including histone acetylation, regulate learning and memory and underlie Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD). Acetyl-CoA synthetase 2 (ACSS2), an enzyme generating acetyl-CoA, locally regulates histone acetylation and gene expression in neuronal nuclei. This regulatory mechanism may be a promising target for therapeutic intervention in neurodegenerative diseases. Previously, we showed that systemic ACSS2 knockout mice, although largely normal in physiology,...

Protein misfolding in the brain is a key pathological hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases. Optical imaging of misfolded proteins in disease models is essential for elucidating etiology and early diagnosis. However, developing specific optical imaging probes for each misfolded protein is time-consuming and challenging, leaving many pathological targets without effective detection tools, especially for in vivo imaging. Here, we present a dual-mode chemiluminescence strategy that enables both...

Many biological functions and dysfunctions rely on two fundamental processes, molecular assembly and the formation of condensed phases such as biomolecular condensates. Condensed phases generally form via phase separation, while molecular assemblies are clusters of molecules of various sizes, shapes, and functionality. We developed a theory that relies on thermodynamic principles to understand the interplay between molecular assembly and phase separation. We propose two prototypical classes of...

CONCLUSION: With very low to moderate certainty, probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics may improve constipation and motor symptoms in PD compared to placebo. These findings suggest a potential benefit, but more high-quality research is needed to confirm these effects and establish stronger evidence.

Epigenetic mechanisms, including histone acetylation, regulate learning and memory and underlie Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD). Acetyl-CoA synthetase 2 (ACSS2), an enzyme generating acetyl-CoA, locally regulates histone acetylation and gene expression in neuronal nuclei. This regulatory mechanism may be a promising target for therapeutic intervention in neurodegenerative diseases. Previously, we showed that systemic ACSS2 knockout mice, although largely normal in physiology,...

Cellular rejuvenation through transcriptional reprogramming is an exciting approach to counter aging. Using a fibroblast-based model of human cell aging and Perturb-seq screening, we developed a systematic approach to identify single transcription factor (TF) perturbations that promote rejuvenation without dedifferentiation. Overexpressing E2F3 or EZH2, and repressing STAT3 or ZFX, reversed cellular hallmarks of aging-increasing proliferation, proteostasis, and mitochondrial activity, while...

Aging, a major risk factor for numerous diseases, is associated with significant transcriptional changes across organs. However, the age of onset, extent of transcriptomic changes and how they unfold are not fully understood. We performed bulk RNA sequencing on eight organs (brain, heart, kidney, liver, lung, skeletal muscle, spleen, and testis) from male C57BL/6J mice across much of the murine lifespan covering 3-, 5-, 8-, 14-, 20- and 26-month-old animals. Our analysis revealed that...

Chronic inflammation is a key driver of aging-related diseases, obesity-associated metabolic disorders, and tumor progression. Aging and obesity contribute to the accumulation of senescent cells, which secrete senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) factors that promote tissue remodeling and chronic inflammation. Here, we investigated the pathological roles of angiopoietin-like protein 2 (ANGPTL2), a potential SASP factor, in a mouse model of high-fat diet-induced premature aging. We...