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Aging is accompanied by chronic low-grade inflammation which has been associated with cognitive decline. Physical activity might regulate plasma levels of inflammatory-related proteins and may contribute to cognitive benefits, although the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. This exploratory secondary analysis aimed to evaluate whether different physical activity modalities were associated with distinct inflammatory-related plasma proteomic signatures in healthy older adults and to...

Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) are associated with older age and mobility limitations. We evaluated whether energetic determinants of mobility-maximum oxygen consumption (VO(2)peak), energetic cost of walking (EC(w)), and cost-capacity ratio (CCR) were associated with LUTS in community-dwelling older adults. We used baseline data from 629 participants aged ≥ 70 years in the Study of Muscle, Mobility and Aging. The 10-item LURN Symptom Index (LURN SI-10; range: 0-38, higher = worse) assessed...

Low back pain is a leading cause of disability worldwide. While non-specific low back pain accounts for the majority of cases, older adults are at increased risk of pathological and structural causes related to age-associated spinal degeneration, including intervertebral disc degeneration. Despite widespread use, conventional diagnostic imaging often fails to reliably identify pain-generating sources. Treatment decisions remain challenging, with many current interventions providing limited...

The ovarian microenvironment is a dynamic target of aging and highly responsive to metabolic and dietary stressors. Western diets (WD) and high-fat diets (HFD) promote obesity and systemic metabolic dysfunction. However, whether these diets induce remodeling of the ovarian microenvironment remains unclear. In this study, we investigated how distinct dietary patterns influence metabolic homeostasis, estrous cyclicity, ovarian reserve, and stromal remodeling in female mice. Three-month-old C57BL/6...

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD⁺) is central to energy metabolism, redox reactions, and cellular signaling. However, human evidence linking circulating NAD⁺ concentrations to frailty remains limited. We examined the association of whole-blood NAD⁺ concentration with frailty in community-dwelling older adults. This cross-sectional analysis included community-dwelling adults aged ≥ 65 years from the 2025 Itabashi Longitudinal Study on Aging. Frailty was assessed using the revised Japanese...

The distinction between healthy and pathological ageing has led to the concept of vitality capacity, which can be understood as the body's physiological reserve and estimated using 12 biomarkers distributed across three domains: immune and stress response, energy and metabolism, and neuromuscular function. This physiological reserve may be preserved by lifelong physical activity. This exploratory cross-sectional study aimed to examine the relationship between vitality capacity and lifelong...

Clonal haematopoiesis (CH) is driven by somatic mutations in haematopoietic stem cells that generate clonal populations detectable in peripheral blood and is present in 10-20% of individuals over the age of 65. Mutations in DNMT3A and TET2 are the most common drivers and have been linked to inflammatory phenotypes and increased risk of haematologic and cardiovascular disease. However, the cell-intrinsic mechanisms connecting these mutations to inflammatory signalling remain incompletely...

Aging is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, but the role of the cardiac lymphatic vasculature in this process remains poorly understood. Here we show that aging reduces cardiac lymphatic vessel density in humans and mice and induces structural remodeling characterized by tighter, zipper-like endothelial junctions. These changes are associated with immune cell infiltration, fibrinogen and amyloid accumulation, and myocardial edema. Selective reduction of cardiac lymphatics in young...

Older adults who changed the balance of fat, carbohydrates, and animal protein in their diets showed signs of reduced biological age after just four weeks. The strongest result appeared in participants eating an omnivorous, lower-fat, higher-carbohydrate diet.

Simply smelling chocolate helped men complete more leg extension repetitions without making the workout feel harder, with dark chocolate producing the strongest effect. The researchers think familiar food aromas may influence appetite and motivation by making the brain anticipate eating.

Scientists have uncovered sweeping changes in how the human brain controls and organizes its genome beginning in midlife, offering new clues to why aging sharply increases the risk of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. One of the biggest shifts occurred between about ages 50 and 75, when many of the brain’s original immune cells declined and were replaced by cells with more inflammatory characteristics. Researchers also found weakening of cells that help maintain the blood-brain barrier, along with widespread deterioration in the genome’s three-dimensional organization.

“Weird terms” are a natural—but disturbing—byproduct of agent swarms, researchers find

The flesh eating New World screwworm has returned to the United States, threatening livestock, wildlife, pets and potentially people as it spreads north. A new UC San Diego tracking system aims to predict where the parasite could strike next while officials revive the eradication strategy that defeated it decades ago.

Activation of microglia is a prominent feature of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disease that leads to the death of motor neurons. A key component of this activation is elevated expression of the TAM receptor tyrosine kinases Axl and Mer (gene name Mertk). Here we show that germline and microglial-restricted inactivation of the Axl and Mertk genes in the SOD1^(G93A) mouse model of ALS leads to an extension of lifespan, which is tied to the preservation of cholinergic...

Identifying features that interact to trigger disease, while accounting for heterogeneity across diverse populations, is essential for the development of precision and targeted medicine. Despite the availability of vast and complex health-related datasets, most existing works focus on identifying disease-associated features at the population level or within a few subpopulations, often overlooking individual-level heterogeneity within these groups. To address this limitation, we propose a...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant public health concern, particularly in aging populations. While advanced age and frailty affect outcomes after TBI, the independent effect of frailty on long-term outcomes in geriatric TBI patients remains poorly understood. We hypothesized that higher disease-specific frailty is independently associated with poor long-term outcomes and quality of life following TBI. To determine whether a TBI-specific frailty index assessed at presentation is...

Host-associated microbiomes often display host specificity and heritability, yet the evolutionary processes under which such structured communities first emerge are still unclear. In particular, the conditions by which intergenerational (i.e., vertical) transmission of microbes can evolve and generate host-specific microbiomes are still unresolved. Here, we present an eco-evolutionary theory of microbiome assembly under minimal assumptions of microbial dynamics (i.e., neutrally driven by...

Among the more than 90 identified genetic risk loci for late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias, the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene ɛ2/ɛ3/ɛ4 polymorphisms remain the longstanding benchmark for genetic disease risk with a consistently large effect across studies^(1-10). Despite this massive signal, the exact mechanisms by which ɛ4 increases and ɛ2 decreases dementia risk remain poorly understood. Notably, recent trials of anti-amyloid therapies suggest less efficacy and higher...