Aggregator

Bacteria already living on grapes can break down smoky chemicals that wreck flavor

Machine learning method counts nearly 12 million dead trees, many likely killed by rising seas

Hunter-gatherers may have used the engravings to find water 12,000 years ago

The items to be returned, which include Java Man, were collected during the colonial era

Aging is a significant risk factor in ovarian cancers, which remains one of the most lethal gynecological malignancies. Over 50 % of ovarian cancer cases occur in women aged 65 and older. During aging, senescent cells progressively accumulate in various tissues, contributing to structural and inflammatory changes in the tumor microenvironment. While recent studies have underscored the role of the senescent mesothelial cells in facilitating cancer cell dissemination, the contribution of senescent...

Fabricating high-performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with solution processing is conducive to low-cost commercial production, it is therefore rather critical to stabilize perovskite in both solution and solid phases. For this purpose, the speed-up ageing of perovskite solution in air was systematically studied and its severe spontaneous degradation was observed. To address this issue, we introduce 4-(trifluoromethyl) phenylhydrazine (TFPH) to modify the perovskite solution, which presents...

Before human genome sequencing, a genome-wide study of sibling centenarian pairs identified a longevity-associated locus on chromosome 4. Here, we mapped the genes in this locus and identified a collagen gene, COL25A1. Introducing an SNP linked to longevity that changes a serine predicted to be phosphorylated to leucine in COL25A1, into col-99, the C. elegans ortholog, extended lifespan. These col-99(gk694263[S106L]) SNP-mutants exhibited enhanced innate immune-related transcriptional responses,...

Telomere shortening is a well-established marker of cellular aging and genomic instability. While the relationship between leukocyte telomere length and cardiovascular diseases has long been of interest, their genetic interplay remains incompletely understood. In this study, we observe substantial genetic overlap beyond genome-wide correlations and identify a potential causal relationship between leukocyte telomere length and coronary artery disease. Specifically, we discover 248 pleiotropic...

Aging is a complex biological process leading to functional decline and disease susceptibility. This article proposes that chronic activation of tissue damage response mechanisms drives aging, with aged organs exhibiting features similar to those seen after acute injury, such as histolysis, inflammation, immune cell infiltration, accumulation of lipid droplets, and induction of cellular senescence. The overlap between injury and aging phenotypes is supported by evidence that interventions...

Approximately half of pancreatic cancer patients present with comorbid diabetes. Diabetes is correlated with adverse prognostic outcomes in pancreatic cancer patients, but the underlying mechanism remains elusive. Here, we demonstrate that the cancer-associated endothelial niche is reshaped in the diabetic pancreatic tumor microenvironment and enhances the tumor-promoting capacity. Senescent endothelial cells expand in the diabetic tumor microenvironment and produce a potential...

Biliverdin reductase A (BVRA), the terminal enzyme in heme catabolism, generates the neuroprotective and lipophilic antioxidant bilirubin. Here, we identify a nonenzymatic role for BVRA in redox regulation. Through phylogenetic, genetic, biochemical, and enzymatic assays, we found that BVRA exerts critical nonenzymatic antioxidant activity. Transcriptomic analyses further revealed that BVRA physically and genetically interacts with nuclear factor erythroid-derived factor-like 2 (NRF2), a major...

Genomic instability is a hallmark of aging and cancer. A key contributor to genomic instability includes alternative DNA structures, such as cruciform-forming inverted repeats (IRs). Short IRs (< 100 bps) are abundant in the human genome, mutagenic, and enriched at mutation hotspots in human cancer genomes. Using an innovative mutation-reporter mouse model, we showed that short IRs are mutagenic in vivo. Further, we found that aging exacerbates IR-induced genomic instability, as evidenced by...

Sex differences in lifespan are pervasive in nature and in humans, yet the contribution of sex chromosomes to DNA methylation-linked aging remains incompletely defined. We leveraged human sex chromosome aneuploidies to test whether X and Y chromosome dosage influences epigenetic aging, quantified with DNA methylation (DNAm) clocks. In whole blood from individuals with karyotypes 46,XX (female) and 46,XY, 47,XXY, 47,XYY (male), we measured epigenetic age and age acceleration using a...

The risk for cardiovascular diseases increases with age. Various markers for vascular aging have been suggested. However, these markers are not a direct measure of aging in vessels. Telomere length quantification can directly measure vascular aging-the current study aimed to investigate aging in aneurysm tissue by quantifying telomere length. Non-diseased control vessels and ruptured and unruptured intracranial aneurysm vessels were resected during surgery. Telomere length quantification...

The function of the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (referred hereafter as TERT) in the synthesis and maintenance of chromosome ends, or telomeres, is widely understood. Whether and how telomeres, on the other hand, influence TERT regulation is relatively less studied. We found TERT was transcriptionally altered depending on telomere length (TL). This resulted from TL-dependent binding of TRF2 between telomeres and the TERT promoter. TERT promoter-bound TRF2 was non-telomeric and did not...

Lysosomes are essential for neuronal homeostasis, providing degradation and recycling functions necessary to support neurons' complex operations and long lifespans. However, the regulation of lysosomal degradative capacity in healthy neurons is poorly understood. Here, we investigate the role of HLH-30, the sole Caenorhabditis elegans homolog of Transcription Factor EB (TFEB), a master regulator of lysosome biogenesis and autophagy that is thought to predominantly function in the context of...

The roles of cells in systemic aging have been systematically investigated, while the roles of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and its degradation have been largely overlooked. Herein, we show that the serum contents of elastin-, hyaluronic acid- and fibronectin-derived fragments are all positively correlated with age. Elastin-derived fragments exhibited the most potent lifespan-shortening effects in mice and a positive correlation with various aging indicators in a human cohort (n = 1,068)....

No abstract

This study investigates how traumatic brain injury (TBI) alters cortical aging by comparing cortical thickness (CT) and surface area (SA) in 34 brain regions between TBI survivors and age-matched controls. Using a cross-sectional retrospective design, 105 Vietnam Veterans (32 with moderate-to-severe TBI, 73 controls) were analyzed via surface-based morphometry. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) reduced dimensionality, and Multivariate Analysis of Covariance tested group differences while...

Cellular senescence and metabolic impairment occur during aging, with adipose tissue decline playing a key role in this process. Furthermore, the detriments of aging on adipose tissue function are further exacerbated by obesity. Dietary protein restriction (DPR), without reducing calorie intake, protects against age-related metabolic decline and extends lifespan through the metabolic hormone FGF21. Here, we demonstrate that protein restriction significantly decreases pro-oncogenic and...