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Disruption of intestinal ecosystem could contribute to diabetes and other health issues, scientists say

Aging has long been associated with oxidative stress, yet its underlying metabolic drivers remain unclear. Liu et al. identify a conserved, iron-driven lipid peroxidation of primate aging mediated by ACSL4 and demonstrate that vitamin C directly suppresses this process, offering a translatable strategy to mitigate age-associated functional decline.

In a recent Cell Press Blue paper, Zhang et al. identify two polyunsaturated lipids that selectively eliminate senescent cells by inducing ferroptosis, uncovering this iron-dependent cell death pathway as a vulnerability for senescent cells. Their findings position ferroptosis induction as a promising strategy for targeting senescence and aging-associated diseases.

Tissue homeostasis emerges from mechanical feedback loops balanced by cell loss and proliferation, a balance that in postmitotic tissues must be maintained without compensatory proliferation. Yet how these tissues preserve mechanical homeostasis and how this challenges function in ageing remains unclear. To establish the relationship between cell density, mechanical homeostasis, and function, we induced age-mimicking cell loss in a postmitotic retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) in vitro. This...

Cytokines are essential mediators of immune functions and regulate many other biological processes, ranging from fetal development to ageing. Dysregulation of cytokine responses can substantially increase the risk of disease and so their activity requires tight control. The formation of cytokine homodimers, heterodimers and multimers has evolved as a versatile mechanism to regulate cytokine biology, in which multimerization can enable or attenuate their activity, diversify signalling outcomes...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression and can influence processes such as inflammation, metabolism, and aging. This study assessed the effects of miR-181a-5p and miR-1249-3p mimics on the transcriptome of visceral adipose tissue in middle-aged females mice. Mice received intraperitoneal injections of either miR-181a-5p, miR-1249-3p, or vehicle control, followed by transcriptomic and metabolic analyses. Both treatments significantly reduced fasting blood glucose levels and promoted...

Oocyte quality, a critical determinant of female reproductive potential, experiences a progressive decline with age, largely driven by the cumulative effects of oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. This review thoroughly synthesizes the latest evidence concerning the molecular, cellular, and environmental factors that disrupt redox homeostasis within oocytes. It particularly highlights the pivotal roles of reactive oxygen species, impaired mitochondrial metabolism, epigenetic...

Physical fitness is a key determinant of health, yet the molecular pathways linking fitness to the risk of aging-related diseases remain unclear. We examined associations between DNA methylation-based protein level estimates (EpiScores) and five fitness traits-VO(2)max, GripStrength, JumpMax, body mass index (BMI), and cognition-in a cohort of 290 mostly old individuals (mean age of 60 ± 11 years). EpiScores for 109 plasma proteins were obtained using the MethylDetectR tool and tested for...

Influenza A virus continues to pose a significant global health burden, with older individuals experiencing disproportionate morbidity and mortality. Although aging is associated with the accumulation of senescent cells, the extent to which cellular senescence contributes to influenza severity remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to evaluate the therapeutic potential of the senolytic drug ABT-263, a B cell lymphoma-2 inhibitor, in mitigating both acute and chronic damage in an...

The molecular correlates of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are increasingly being defined by multi-omics. However, findings from different data types are often difficult to reconcile. Here, we apply a data-driven multi-omics framework integrating seven omics layers from up to 1,358 aged human brain samples from the Religious Orders Study and Rush Memory and Aging Project. We demonstrate sprawling cross-omics biological factors relating to AD phenotypes. The strongest AD-associated factor (factor 8) is...

Tauopathies, such as Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia, are common neurodegenerative diseases characterized by misfolding, hyperphosphorylation, and aggregation of tau. Molecular mechanisms underlying tauopathies are still poorly understood, which is in part due to a lack of human models autonomously developing major disease hallmarks. The formation of late-stage disease phenotypes may require adult tau isoform expression, which contributes to tau pathogenesis but is challenging to...

The molecular correlates of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are increasingly being defined by multi-omics. However, findings from different data types are often difficult to reconcile. Here, we apply a data-driven multi-omics framework integrating seven omics layers from up to 1,358 aged human brain samples from the Religious Orders Study and Rush Memory and Aging Project. We demonstrate sprawling cross-omics biological factors relating to AD phenotypes. The strongest AD-associated factor (factor 8) is...

Accelerated global population aging challenges conventional economic growth paths. Yet, the mechanisms underlying the transition from the age-based demographic dividend, derived from a favorable age support ratio (ASR), to a skill-based dividend, driven by human capital accumulation, remain insufficiently understood. Using population census data for 336 Chinese cities from 2000 to 2020, we develop a task-based skill ratio (TSR) index to quantify the skill composition of local labor markets,...

Human longevity arises from complex genetic and environmental interactions, yet the genetic basis of survival to extreme old age remains underexplored in Asian populations. We performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in a Taiwanese cohort, defining survival thresholds at ≥ 85, ≥ 90, and ≥ 95 years, and validated significant loci in an independent cohort. Multiple loci, including ZNF806, NUAK1, TANC1, SLC22A3, PTPRD, and PCSK2, were associated with longevity, of which 14 replicated with...

CONCLUSION: Higher optimism was associated with a lower incidence of dementia. These findings suggest a potential value of optimism in supporting healthy aging, which could be considered in future research on dementia prevention initiatives.

CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrated OAβT as a reflection of systemic changes linked to early AD pathology. Moreover, the influence of medications and systemic aging on OAβT values pointed to the potential avenues for intervention and emphasized the importance of considering systemic factors in AD pathogenesis and treatment.