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Scientists have discovered a compound that transforms a natural muscle-repair protein into a more powerful version dubbed "Super HGF," more than doubling its ability to bind to a key receptor while protecting it from age-related chemical damage. The breakthrough, supported by early mouse experiments, could eventually help combat muscle loss and preserve strength as people age.

Scientists propose that the brain’s mysterious cross-wiring, which connects each hemisphere to the opposite side of the body, may have originated more than 500 million years ago in the visual systems of ancient fish. Rather than evolving for a specific advantage, this unusual arrangement may simply be a legacy of evolution building new brain circuits on an ancient foundation.

A new study warns that permanent daylight saving time could force American children to make at least 2 billion additional school commutes in darkness, potentially increasing safety risks and disrupting their biological clocks. Researchers found that fatal crashes involving school-aged pedestrians were roughly twice as likely during dark mornings as after sunrise.

Congress and the White House are moving to weaken key law that requires preproject reviews

P2X purinoreceptor 7 (P2RX7), an ATP-gated ion channel, contributes to Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression, but its molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we show that genetic disruption of P2rx7 mitigates brain atrophy, tau accumulation, and cognitive impairment in PS19 mice. Microglia-specific, but not astrocyte-specific, deletion of P2rx7 suppresses tau propagation. Single-cell RNA sequencing identifies a previously unrecognized first-responding microglial state (FRM) with prominent...

Previous neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that beta-amyloid (Aβ) plaques and neurofibrillary tangles of tau are associated with disruptions in neurocognitive function in Alzheimer's disease. However, the relationship between Aβ, tau deposition, and functional network connectivity in normal aging and mild cognitive impairment remains unclear. Using resting-state functional MRI and Aβ PET and tau PET data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), we applied multiple...

DNA methylation (DNAm) is a key epigenetic mechanism implicated in brain aging, yet methylation trajectories across the lifespan in the primate brain remain poorly understood. To characterize age-associated DNAm patterns in the hippocampus, we generated reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) data from 86 rhesus macaque hippocampus samples spanning ~3-35 years of age (females = 56; males = 30). CpG-level analyses revealed minimal age-associated changes in mean methylation, with sites...

Aging is characterized by two interdependent hallmarks: a chronic low-grade inflammatory state known as inflammaging, and a progressive deterioration of sleep and circadian rhythms. Emerging evidence indicates that these are not merely parallel processes but are mechanistically intertwined in a self-perpetuating cycle. This review synthesizes current knowledge on how age-related sleep and circadian disturbances exacerbate inflammaging through distinct molecular and cellular pathways. We examine...

Early sleep disruption is a hallmark of preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD), but its underlying mechanisms are unclear. The locus coeruleus (LC) dopamine-β-hydroxylase noradrenergic (LC^(DBH)) neurons are vulnerable to early tau pathology in AD. Using P301S transgenic mice and cell-type-specific tau overexpression models, we show that pathological tau accumulation selectively increases the intrinsic excitability of LC^(DBH) neurons. Tau-induced neuronal hyperactivity disrupts sleep homeostasis,...

Hibernation demands rapid brain adaptations, involving cycles of reduced metabolic rate during torpor, followed by brief periods of arousal. Previous studies show hibernation induces a drastic increase in Tau hyperphosphorylation, but a mechanistic connection to disease remains unclear. Using single-nucleus RNA sequencing on hippocampi of golden hamsters, we unveil large transcriptional shifts across the hibernation cycle in all cell types, especially glia. Common transcriptional changes in...

Identifying the neurobiological basis of cognitive vulnerability is essential for preventing Alzheimer's disease (AD). We derived the Alzheimer's Resilience-Vulnerability Connectome (ARC) by contrasting SuperAgers (SA), an extreme phenotype of preserved late-life memory, with AD using resting-state fMRI. ARC distinguished SA from AD in a discovery cohort (N = 290; AUC = 0.85) and replicated independently (N = 143), involving prefrontal, temporal, and insular networks and associating with brain...

Early-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD) and late-onset AD (LOAD) differ in clinical presentations and rates of progression. We aimed to compare baseline and longitudinal tau positron emission tomography (PET) burden measured with ^(18)F-flortaucipir and its relationship with clinical variables in amyloid PET-positive, cognitively impaired participants from the Longitudinal Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease Study (EOAD; n = 390) and Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (LOAD; n = 211)....

Declining global fertility has produced a growing, often invisible population facing Elderly Companionship Collapse-older adults who are childless, kinless, sole family survivors, or aging solo. AI companions already simulate presence; Phase II avatars that digitally resurrect deceased loved ones are now feasible. This prospect offers solace but risks a "perfection trap" that could incentivize replacing human partners, and ontological confusion by blurring the boundary between life and death. We...

Companion dogs are a valuable source of translational discovery about the basic biology of aging because of their well-characterized genome, phenotypic variation in lifespan, aging, and disease profiles, and diverse environmental exposures shared with their human owners. The Dog Aging Project (DAP)'s prospective, longitudinal open cohort study was begun in 2019 to investigate the biological and environmental determinants of healthy aging in companion dogs. As of December 31, 2024, the study has...

Age-related loss of muscle and bone mass and increased adiposity contribute to frailty, disability, falls, and fractures. The hallmarks of aging framework provide a biological model to investigate mechanisms underlying body composition remodeling. However, whether hallmark-related biomarkers are associated with longitudinal body composition changes remains unclear. We conducted a narrative review of longitudinal human studies examining associations between biomarkers and body composition...

CONCLUSIONS: In this cross-sectional study, lower cognitive performance in PD was more strongly associated with age at assessment and its interaction with disease severity than with age at onset. Education and cognitive reserve were positively associated with cognitive performance, consistent with their protective role.

Aging impairs organ regeneration, with insufficient angiogenesis as a key contributor. Here, we show that the endothelial immunoproteasome subunit PSMB8 is upregulated in aged mouse livers after partial hepatectomy. Endothelial PSMB8 deletion or PR-957 inhibition promotes angiogenesis and rescues liver regeneration. diGly proteomics identifies TAZ (transcriptional co-activator with PDZ-binding motif) as a ubiquitin-dependent immunoproteasome substrate, and TAZ activation restores aged liver...

Glaucoma, a leading cause of irreversible blindness, involves progressive retinal ganglion cell loss. Early detection of this neurodegeneration is critical, yet current clinical methods often identify disease only after substantial damage has occurred. This preliminary study used high-resolution adaptive optics-optical coherence tomography (AO-OCT) to track individual retinal ganglion cells in patients and healthy volunteers over 3 to 5 years. Results revealed higher neurodegeneration in...

Identifying the neurobiological basis of cognitive vulnerability is essential for preventing Alzheimer's disease (AD). We derived the Alzheimer's Resilience-Vulnerability Connectome (ARC) by contrasting SuperAgers (SA), an extreme phenotype of preserved late-life memory, with AD using resting-state fMRI. ARC distinguished SA from AD in a discovery cohort (N = 290; AUC = 0.85) and replicated independently (N = 143), involving prefrontal, temporal, and insular networks and associating with brain...