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Aging is characterized by a gradual decline in physiological functions, impaired cellular repair mechanisms, and increased disease susceptibility. Mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase-2 (MKP-2) regulates diverse biological functions, including regulation of infection, brain activity, nutrient metabolism, and cell-cycle progression, but its role in senescence and adipose lipid metabolism in vivo remains unclear. Here, we investigated the effects of MKP-2 deficiency on cellular senescence...

CONCLUSION: Healthy aging is associated with task-dependent reorganization of lower-limb neuromuscular control and selective basal ganglia-striatal structure-function alterations. These findings provide multimodal evidence of parallel central and peripheral reorganization during healthy aging and identify candidate brain-muscle associations for future longitudinal and confirmatory investigation.

A single gene-editing treatment could someday protect against heart disease, high cholesterol, and other common conditions for decades, potentially replacing lifelong medications. But scientists warn that permanently altering genes introduces risks that could take years to emerge, making long-term safety a critical challenge.

Scientists have developed a promising new cancer-fighting strategy that uses carbon monoxide naturally produced by tumor cells to manufacture powerful drugs inside the cancer cells themselves. Early laboratory experiments suggest the technique could selectively attack cancer while sparing healthy cells, potentially paving the way for safer chemotherapy alternatives.

A new study suggests that ultra-processed foods may influence children's developing brains in ways that encourage weight gain. Researchers from USC studied 46 children ages 7 to 10 and found that those who ate more ultra-processed foods showed stronger activity in the brain's reward system when viewing tempting foods like cookies and French fries. These heightened brain responses were linked to greater increases in body fat and body mass index (BMI) one year later, suggesting that the brain's sensitivity to food cues may help explain why ultra-processed diets are associated with obesity.

A surprising new discovery suggests that fear may cause the brain to blur the line between danger and safety rather than distinguish them more clearly. By observing brain activity in mice using augmented reality, scientists found that memories of threatening and harmless environments began to overlap, potentially allowing faster responses to danger. This "better safe than sorry" survival mechanism could help explain why people with anxiety or PTSD sometimes experience intense fear in completely safe situations.

Scientists have uncovered an unexpected connection between inflammation during pregnancy, placental damage, and autism-like traits in male mice, while females appeared naturally protected. The discovery could help explain why autism is diagnosed more frequently in boys and reveal new opportunities for early intervention.

Eating an avocado and a cup of mango every day may provide surprising benefits for heart health, according to a new study involving adults with prediabetes. After just eight weeks, participants experienced significant improvements in blood vessel function and diastolic blood pressure, particularly among men. These benefits occurred without weight gain or changes in calorie intake, suggesting that the nutrient-rich combination could support cardiovascular health through a simple dietary adjustment.

A massive new study reveals that intelligence plays a surprisingly limited role in children's reading success, while visual processing showed no meaningful connection at all. Instead, the strongest predictors are sound recognition, vocabulary, and background knowledge, offering new clues about how to help struggling readers.

Mark Dybul contends the group can finally help countries control malaria, TB, and HIV

More than €55 billion from EU fund has gone to research and innovation, but researchers worry those investments will not be sustained

Vagus nerve stimulation has shown promising neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects in progressive neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease. However, its invasive nature introduces procedural and device-related risks. Here we introduce a magnetoelectric particulate system for oral delivery and non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation through the gut. The system comprises a magneto-responsive nickel ferrite core and a piezoelectric barium titanate shell, conjugated with capsaicin...

An age-related neurovascular impairment in nitric oxide (NO)-mediated vasodilation and reciprocal Piezo1-dependent vascular vasoconstriction may precede the accumulation of soluble brain proteins such as amyloid-β (Aβ) and disruption of brain fluid homeostasis in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Preclinical studies suggest that restoring these pathways can enhance neurofluid transport and improve cognitive outcomes. In this study (EudraCT 2021-000625-27), we investigated the effects of sublingual NO...

Aging is characterized by progressive physiological decline and increased susceptibility to age-related diseases. Conventional rodent models have contributed significantly to our understanding of aging, yet their translational relevance is limited by substantial evolutionary divergence from humans. Here, we introduce the tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri chinensis) as a novel and biologically relevant model organism for aging research. In vitro, we induced cellular senescence in tree shrew...

CONCLUSIONS: Risk factors for PSO differ substantially by sex and age. These findings support targeted prevention strategies: weight control in men, nutritional and inflammatory monitoring in women, metabolic management in younger-old adults, and weight control in the oldest-old.

CONCLUSION: Both LL-BFR and W-BFR may improve lower-limb muscle strength and physical performance in older adults, particularly when compared with no intervention or conventional walking. Lower-limb BFR training may therefore have a potential role in sarcopenia prevention and early management in aging populations, especially for individuals who are unable to tolerate high mechanical loads.

Organismal physiology depends on continuous, non-hierarchical communication among cells, tissues, and organs. We argue that this communication rests on metabolic flexibility-the capacity of cells and tissues to adapt substrate use to changing energetic demands-and that the hypothalamus serves as the central hub coordinating this flexibility across the body. Using hypothalamic agouti-related protein (AgRP) and pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons as a model, we show these melanocortin neurons do...

Why mitochondria progressively fail in aging neurons remains a fundamental question in neurobiology. Although bioenergetic decline and oxidative stress are hallmarks of aging, whether redox signaling remodels mitochondrial nucleoids (mt-nucleoids) to impair neuronal bioenergetics remains unclear. Using aged mouse neurons and human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons, we demonstrate that redox-driven mt-nucleoid remodeling underlies reduced mtDNA transcript abundance and...