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Researchers encode the tiny hepatitis D virus in an early step toward “quantum genomics”

Ancient DNA reveals “massive” genetic shifts tied to rise of farming, wheels, and metal tools

Five-year quest to chart 47 million galaxies yields insights into mysterious “dark energy”

Depletion of TRF2 from chromosome ends causes telomeric fusions and genome instability in mammals, but in mouse neural stem cells (mNSCs), Trf2's role is non-telomeric. Although essential for mNSC proliferation and survival, Trf2 does not protect telomeres, aligning with findings that Trf2 is dispensable for telomere protection in pluripotent stem cells. In Trf2-deficient adult mNSCs (Trf2fl/fl; Nestin-Cre), proliferation decreased and neuronal differentiation was impaired, yet no telomere...

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Understanding how aging reshapes balance is essential for targeted assessment and rehabilitation. Because wobble boards impose continuous instability, their kinematics may provide a noninvasive readout of long-latency (transcortical) reflex function in ecologically valid conditions. We analyzed wobble-board dynamics in healthy younger adults ( 19 -- 35 y, n = 29 ) and community-dwelling older adults ( 56 -- 70 y, n = 29 ) performing with and without a concurrent cognitive load (Trail...

Cortical thinning and atrophy are hallmarks of brain aging that have been characterized using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Brain aging involves many neuroanatomic features whose effects on brain structure remain unexplored. To address this challenge, we trained interpretable deep neural networks (DNNs) to estimate brain age (BA) from T(1)-weighted (T(1)w) MRI. By identifying MRI features unapparent to humans, DNNs can find aging-related structural alterations above and beyond cortical...

CONCLUSION: Integrating assessments for multisensory impairment, vision, and hearing loss may add to elder mistreatment prevention and detection efforts.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an aging-associated neurodegenerative disorder characterized by amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau accumulation and progressive cognitive decline. Increasing evidence implicates the glymphatic system, a brain-wide perivascular pathway involved in cerebrospinal fluid-interstitial fluid exchange and metabolic waste clearance, in the removal of Aβ, tau, and other solutes relevant to AD pathogenesis. Aging-related alterations in aquaporin-4 polarization, arterial pulsatility, sleep...

CONCLUSION: The selection of QSM reconstruction pipelines impacts results obtained from multi-site studies, indicating the importance of harmonizing QSM pipelines when interpreting susceptibility measures across studies.

Approach could help reveal which migrating species are most vulnerable to wind turbines and light pollution

Plasma phosphorylated tau 217 (pTau217) is an excellent biomarker of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, but it remains uncertain whether pTau217 can predict amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau accumulation prior to Aβ positron emission tomography (PET) positivity. Here, we leverage data from a well-characterized prospective cohort of cognitively unimpaired older adults to examine mass spectrometry-based plasma %pTau217 (pTau217/non-phosphorylated-Tau217×100) relative to changes in Aβ/tau PET and cognition....

Astrocytes are key partners for neurons and can impact diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), as they exhibit multiple reactive changes. Recent single cell/nucleus genomics analyses evidence astrocyte subpopulations coexisting in normal and AD brains. However, the signaling cascades controlling them, their functional characteristics and roles in AD are still unknown. Here, thanks to astrocyte-specific reporters for STAT3 and NF-kB signaling pathways, two regulators of astrocyte reactivity,...