Aging & Longevity

Ambient temperature is a primordial determinant of longevity across the animal kingdom, yet the molecular transducers that couple thermal cues to aging rates remain elusive. Here, we interrogate the transcriptomic and metabolomic landscapes of Drosophila melanogaster to decode the mechanisms of temperature-dependent lifespan extension. We find that thermal stress drives a profound remodeling of the transcriptome that surprisingly outpaces metabolic adaptation. Through this multi-omics...

H(2)O(2) functions as a signaling molecule regulating plant growth, development, and stress responses; however, its role in jasmonic acid (JA) signaling transduction and JA-regulated biological processes remains elusive. Here, we report that General regulatory factor 8 (GRF8) is a critical factor inhibiting JA signaling, while H(2)O(2) removes this inhibition to facilitate the JA response during root growth and leaf senescence in Arabidopsis. GRF8 interacts with and inhibits MYC2, the key...

Nearly all cellular processes are pH dependent. The acidic pH inside the lysosome (vacuole in yeast) is essential for cellular content degradation, signaling, and autophagy. Defects in lysosome/vacuole acidification are a conserved hallmark of aging and age-related diseases. Traditionally, the lysosome/vacuole is thought to import free protons (H⁺) from the surrounding neutral cytosol. Here, we uncovered a conserved lysosome/vacuole acidification mechanism from yeast to human involving...

Conventional bulk transcriptomic approaches obscure cellular and tissue-level heterogeneity critical to understanding age-related neurodegeneration. While single-cell transcriptomics resolved cellular identity, it sacrificed spatial context - a fundamental limitation for mechanistic disease understanding. Spatial transcriptomics emerges as a transformative technology that preserves native tissue architecture while enabling genome-wide transcriptome profiling at subcellular resolution,...

Human spaceflight exposes crew members to a combination of environmental stressors - including microgravity, galactic cosmic radiation, circadian disruption, and prolonged confinement - that together induce multisystem physiological changes resembling terrestrial aging. In this narrative review, we examine how short- and medium-term spaceflight affects all twelve recognized hallmarks of aging. Integrated multi-omics analyses in astronauts and rodent models identified mitochondrial dysfunction as...

Ageing is closely linked to cellular senescence, but this relationship remains incompletely defined. Although many studies have reported age-associated increases in senescence markers, no review has systematically integrated the available quantitative data across tissues and species to clarify how senescence-associated cell populations change with age. In addition, the field has often used inconsistent definitions for intermediate and senescent states, making cross-study interpretation...

CONCLUSION: Low STS power showed a stronger association with low UGS than low handgrip strength in male. However, their overall impact on functional ability and mortality was similar between muscle function measures in older male and female.

Aging is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation, which is thought to contribute to both cognitive decline and various neurodegenerative diseases. Cannabinoids are reported to reduce levels of inflammatory markers; however, these effects have not been thoroughly assessed in older subjects. To address this gap, we evaluated the effects of sub-chronic cannabis smoke exposure on serum and brain inflammatory markers in younger and older mice. Younger (4 month old) and older (22 month old)...

During aging, the progressive decline in neuronal function contributes to cognitive impairment and predisposes individuals to neurodegenerative disorders. This phenomenon has become increasingly prominent in modern society. Recent studies have found that post-translational modifications (PTMs) of proteins play a crucial role in the aging process, influencing the physiological functions and pathological changes in brain cells. This article reviews the variety and complexity of PTMs across brain...

Dual hole transport layers consisting of NiO(x) and self-assembled molecules are widely adopted in inverted perovskite solar cells, yet plagued by high impurity content, inefficient hole transport, low molecular coverage, weak interfacial binding, unstable buried interface and energy level mismatch. Herein, a low-temperature chemical precipitation strategy is developed to synthesize high-quality NiO(x) nanoparticles as hole transport layers. Compared with the room-temperature route, the...

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Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) transition through different functional states throughout life from emergence and expansion in the fetus, homeostasis maintenance in adulthood, and progressive functional decline with age. Aged HSCs are characterized by increased phenotypic number, decreased self-renewal and long-term reconstitution capacity, myeloid-biased differentiation, and clonal hematopoiesis. In this review, we summarize the life cycle of HSCs, integrate recent advances in understanding the...

Chronic inflammation and aging skew hematopoiesis toward myelopoiesis at the expense of lymphoid output. We screened type 2 and anti-inflammatory cytokines to identify extrinsic signals capable of restoring lymphoid lineage commitment in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). Interleukin 4 (IL-4) specifically inhibited inflammation-induced myelopoiesis and shifted multipotent progenitor (MPP) differentiation toward the lymphoid lineage. IL-4 activated a signal transducer and activator...

CONCLUSION: BDNF, FABP-3, OSM and OSTN contributed to a stepwise regression model predicting the FI after adjusting for age, whereas only SPARC remained in a model predicting FP score.

Ageing heterogeneity hampers prevention and care. We used routine biochemical panels and unsupervised learning to identify latent phenotypes in community-dwelling older adults. In 1491 participants from the Toledo Study for Healthy Ageing (TSHA) with ~10-11 years of follow-up, 39 blood biomarkers were dimension-reduced and clustered, yielding three phenotypes: Healthy, Metabolic (subclinical dysmetabolism), and Haematological (low erythroid/renal profile). Phenotypes differed in functional...

Psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia and affective psychosis, affect ~3% of the population and typically emerge in early adulthood. Cardiometabolic disease accounts for much of the 20-year life-expectancy gap in psychosis. Evidence indicates potentially causal processes, often seen in aging, act within and beyond the brain, and before the onset of treatment; these include inflammation, metabolic and mitochondrial dysfunction. Here we synthesize evidence and propose a framework that...

BACKGROUND: Head and neck cancer (HNC) is a common malignant tumor, and its treatment often leads to functional impairments in speech, swallowing, and appearance, severely affecting patients' quality of life. Older individuals with HNC, due to the combined stress of aging and disease, face heightened mental health challenges. This study aims to evaluate the effect of AI-driven personalized health education on mental health, social support and quality of life in older patients after HNC surgery.

CONCLUSIONS: Neutral acceptance may represent a relatively higher-scoring dimension of death attitudes among Chinese older adults. Health-related factors, death-related experiences, and cultural factors appear to be relevant factors associated with death attitudes. Based on these preliminary findings, exploratory interventions, including death education and psychosocial support, could be considered for older adults with poor health. These findings should be interpreted cautiously, given that all...

Aging affects us all, but we still do not know how the process evolves or if we can modulate its pace. This issue of PLOS Biology presents a Collection of articles that explores different aspects of aging, discussing what challenges still need to be overcome.

Intermuscular fat infiltration driven by fibro-adipogenic progenitors contributes to the irreversible progression of sarcopenia and reflects a fate shift associated with altered calcium signaling. Using FAP-based adipogenesis models, structural and biochemical analyses, transcriptomic profiling, and in vivo drug exposure studies, we found that Ca^(2+) influx dyshomeostasis promotes adipogenic commitment by triggering calmodulin remodeling, dissociation of the KCNQ1-CaM-FTO complex, nuclear...