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The Ozempic and Wegovy mistake sending thousands to poison control
Poison control calls involving semaglutide (Ozempic and Wegovy) soared after the drug was approved for weight management, with researchers linking the increase to accidental dosing mistakes rather than intentional misuse. Simple education about proper weekly dosing and gradual dose increases could help prevent many of these avoidable incidents.
Harvard scientists turn a silicon chip into a DNA writing machine
Scientists have created a silicon chip that can write dozens of DNA sequences simultaneously using electricity and water-based enzymes, offering a cleaner alternative to conventional DNA manufacturing. The breakthrough could eventually support portable DNA-writing devices and even massive DNA data storage, although new chemistry will be needed to scale the technology further.
Tiny silica particles wiped out aggressive prostate cancer in mice
Tiny silica nanoparticles engineered to seek out prostate cancer caused tumor cells to self-destruct and supercharged the immune system in preclinical mouse studies. Combined with immunotherapy, the treatment produced complete remissions in multiple mice, raising hopes for a powerful new approach to prostate cancer.
Scientists finally crack nature's secret for building better cancer drugs
Researchers have cracked the code behind bacteria's ability to naturally manufacture multiple versions of powerful anti-cancer drugs. The discovery could make it much easier to engineer new cancer treatments inspired by nature, including improved versions of existing medicines.
Detection schemes could deter putting nuclear warheads in space
Three approaches—including one that exploits Earth’s radiation belts—could help enforce ban on orbital nuclear weapons
The Autophagy-Senescence-Inflammasome Axis: A Novel Triad in Neurodegenerative Diseases?
Chronic neuroinflammation is a defining feature of brain ageing and neurodegenerative disorders, yet the molecular mechanisms responsible for its persistence remain incompletely understood. Although autophagy dysfunction, glial senescence, and inflammasome activation are well-established contributors to progressive neurodegeneration, these processes are often analysed independently or through pairwise interactions, leaving their collective contribution to persistent neuroinflammation and disease...
ACE2 deficiency alters brain RAS signaling to induce pro-inflammatory microglial remodeling and Worsen Parkinson's disease pathology
CONCLUSION: Disrupted brain RAS homeostasis induces pro-inflammatory microglial remodeling and worsens PD neurodegeneration. This study reveals novel pathogenic mechanisms and identifies promising therapeutic targets for PD treatment.
Exogenous mitochondrial transplantation attenuates oxidative stress-driven retinal degeneration in a sodium iodate - induced mouse model
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a degenerative retinal disease initiated by dysfunction of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), in which age-related mitochondrial impairment, oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, and complement activation collectively drive outer retinal dysfunction and RPE atrophy, ultimately leading to progressive central vision loss. Accumulating evidence indicates that mitochondrial abnormalities, including excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) production,...
Systemic infections alter cortical transcriptional signatures in Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by neuroinflammation, yet the impact of concurrent systemic infections on the AD brain remains poorly understood. We investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying the central nervous system response to systemic infections in AD by analyzing RNA sequencing data generated in the prefrontal cortex from 202 post-mortem donors (113 AD, 89 controls), where we stratified by the presence of a respiratory infection at the time of death. We identified 763...
Epigenetic aging is associated with hearing loss and multi-system disease risk independently of chronological age
CONCLUSION: Based on our data, GrimAgeAcc is associated with ARHL and systemic age-related diseases (dementia, CVD, diabetes), potentially through shared biological pathways (e.g., endocytosis, lysosomal, inflammatory). Chronological age explains 28-50% of these associations, yet ARHL remains independently associated with all three outcomes after age adjustment. The cochlea may be vulnerable, but causal evidence is lacking. All findings are hypothesis-generating and require experimental...
The Autophagy-Senescence-Inflammasome Axis: A Novel Triad in Neurodegenerative Diseases?
Chronic neuroinflammation is a defining feature of brain ageing and neurodegenerative disorders, yet the molecular mechanisms responsible for its persistence remain incompletely understood. Although autophagy dysfunction, glial senescence, and inflammasome activation are well-established contributors to progressive neurodegeneration, these processes are often analysed independently or through pairwise interactions, leaving their collective contribution to persistent neuroinflammation and disease...
Gut microbiota associates with frailty in older women
Frailty is a multifactorial geriatric condition linked to increased mortality and adverse health outcomes and is associated with gut microbiome features that differ from those observed in healthy ageing. We analyze gut metagenomic profiles in relation to estimated frailty severity and frailty-related clinical outcomes assessed with an internally developed and validated Frailty Mortality Index (FMI) in the SUPERB cohort, comprising 2,081 Swedish women aged 75-80 years. The FMI is a composite...
Reproductive behaviors, genetic susceptibility and accelerated aging risk
We examined the associations of reproductive behaviors and genetic susceptibility with aging indicators among female participants in the UK Biobank. Reproductive behaviors included the number of children ever born (NEB), age at first birth (AFB), age at last birth (ALB), and span of years of births (SYB). Aging indicators included frailty, PhenoAge acceleration, KDM-BA acceleration, and brain age difference (BrainAGE-diff). In multivariable analyses, reproductive behaviors showed nonlinear...
Local autophagy impairment triggers brain-wide presynaptic remodeling and resilience
Neural circuits must remain functionally stable while adapting to changing demands and levels of stress. While this balance is thought to rely on plasticity programs integrating molecular and activity-dependent signals, mechanistic models of how such adaptations are orchestrated remain limited. Here, we show that impairment of autophagy in the Drosophila mushroom body (MB) induces brain-wide, post-transcriptional remodeling of presynaptic active zones, characterized by increased expression...
Hypoxia rescues complex 1-associated disease caused by proteostatic defects
Impaired mitochondrial proteostasis underlies a broad spectrum of diseases, yet effective therapies remain limited. Here we show that deficiency of HTRA2, a mitochondrial intermembrane space protease, can be rescued by hypoxia therapy. Using an Htra2 mutant mouse model that displays severe neurodegeneration and early lethality, we find that continuous hypoxia rescues striatal degeneration and extends lifespan. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that HTRA2 forms a functional complex with the...
High-resolution structure of monomorphic Aβ<sub>1-40</sub> fibrils
Amyloid-β (Aβ) fibrils primarily composed of Aβ(1-40) and Aβ(1-42) form the core of senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease. Aβ(1-40) fibrils may exhibit significant polymorphism influenced by sample preparation conditions, complicating atomic resolution structural characterization. To establish a reliable structural baseline, we developed a protocol for expressing and purifying recombinant Aβ(1-40) that forms monomorphic fibrils under physiological conditions (pH 7.4). We present a...
Dopamine-driven mitochondrial reverse electron transport in immune cells mediates gut-brain ROS signaling during sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation (SD), together with inevitable stress inherent to conventional SD protocols, can induce oxidative stress and inflammation, thereby increasing the risk of premature death. However, the source and signaling pathways underlying reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that both mechanical and thermogenetic SD, along with possible stress induced by both protocols, lead to initial ROS accumulation in Drosophila gut subregions, including the...
Targeting of CH25H to boost p62-dependent autophagic degradation of alpha-synuclein in cell and mouse models of Parkinson's disease
Insufficient understanding of α-synuclein turnover mechanisms has impeded successful clinical translation for Parkinson's disease (PD). Here, we pinpointed cholesterol 25-hydroxylase (CH25H) as a pivotal regulator of α-synuclein degradation. Through bulk RNA sequencing of substantia nigra tissue from the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) mouse model of PD, along with reanalysis of published datasets from induced pluripotent stem cell-derived astrocytes of patients with PD, we...
Time-resolved proteolipidomics of the human aorta identifies stage-specific lipid-protein modules across development and aging
An established vascular network is a prerequisite to ensuring an optimal supply of oxygen and nutrients for sustaining developmental events and systemic function. Herein, we construct a time-resolved proteolipidomic atlas of the aorta across the human life cycle. trans-omics integration reveals that postnatal ganglioside GM3 accumulation is functionally coregulated with calcium homeostasis mediated by plasma membrane calcium-transporting ATPases (PMCAs). We then verify mechanistically in...
Inhibition of elastin degradation alleviates joint degeneration in aging mice, dogs, and human models
Extracellular matrix degradation is a fundamental pathological feature of osteoarthritis, while the roles of degraded matrix remain largely unknown. We previously showed that serum elastin fragments were a systemic aging driver. Here, we found that elastin fragments were upregulated in synovial fluid in dual-center osteoarthritis patients. Elastin fragments actively impaired joint tissue in mice and human explants. Mechanistically, a specific elastin motif containing...