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Nearly half of kidney transplant patients never even get started
A massive national study found that nearly half of Americans with kidney failure who are referred for a transplant never even begin the evaluation process, and only 19% make it onto the transplant waitlist. Researchers discovered that factors such as where a person lives, whether they are married, their income level, language, age, and even which transplant center they use can dramatically affect their chances of moving forward.
A surprising brain discovery is forcing scientists to rethink movement disorders
A surprising discovery is overturning a long-held assumption about how the brain’s movement center works. Researchers found that two key cerebellar cell types—thought to be tightly linked—often don’t behave in predictable ways, even though one directly influences the other. The finding suggests scientists may have been relying on the wrong signals when studying disorders such as dystonia, ataxia, and tremor.
Recurrent patterns of TOP1-mediated neuronal genomic damage shared by major neurodegenerative disorders
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and Alzheimer's disease (AD) represent two major categories of neurodegenerative disorders-TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) and tau proteinopathies-for which the mechanisms driving neuronal death remain unclear. Single-cell whole-genome sequencing of 469 neurons from C9ORF72 ALS, C9ORF72 FTD, AD, and control brains revealed increased somatic single-nucleotide variants (sSNVs) and insertions/deletions (sIndels) in all three...
Amylin at the crossroads of type 2 diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is traditionally viewed as a metabolic disease centered on insulin resistance and β-cell failure. However, growing evidence supports its reclassification as a systemic proteinopathy, in which the aggregation of amylin (islet amyloid polypeptide, IAPP) emerges as a key pathogenic event. In this review, we examine the shift toward an IAPP-centric model of disease, highlighting how IAPP misfolding and aggregation drive β-cell dysfunction independently of, and in parallel with,...
Plasma proteomic profiles of Alzheimer's disease and neurodegeneration in African cohorts
Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD) represents a growing public health burden, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Yet, most studies focus on Non-Hispanic white (NHW) populations from high-income countries. This study investigates plasma proteomic signatures associated with amyloid pathology in African populations. Nigerian older adults from the VALIANT study and participants from a Tanzanian study, with available biomarker quantification in plasma are employed. For...
Author Correction: Spinal cord Tau pathology induces tactile deficits and cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease via dysregulation of CCK neurons
No abstract
Blood-based circular RNAs for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease
Detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) before the development of clinical symptoms is critical for enabling the use of new treatments. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are highly stable non-coding RNAs enriched in the brain that can cross the blood-brain barrier. Here, analyzing blood data from 1,221 individuals with AD and healthy individuals, we identified 34 circRNAs associated with AD status. A predictive model including these 34 circRNAs was comparable to plasma phosphorylated Tau-217 (pTau217) in...
TGF-beta1-induced endothelial transcytosis drives blood-brain barrier leakage during aging
Age-related breakdown of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is associated with cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, yet its underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we find that BBB leakage begins in midlife and is driven primarily by increased endothelial caveolar transcytosis rather than tight junction disruption. AAV-mediated knockdown of caveolin-1 or restoration of Mfsd2a expression reduces endothelial vesicle formation and BBB leakage in aged mice. Transforming growth factor...
Metabolomic and lifestyle profiles refine BMI-metabolic phenotypes in older adults
Conventional BMI-based classifications, even when combined with traditional cardiometabolic risk factors, limit precision in aging-related risk assessment. Here, we perform metabolomic analysis in 13,202 older adults from the natural aging cohort (NCT04517513). Leveraging a panel of 39 core metabolites, we develop accurate and interpretable machine learning models to identify metabolic dysfunction across different BMI categories, achieving area under the receiver operating characteristic curve...
Triglyceride-glucose-related metabolic indices, phenotypic aging, and incident pulmonary embolism
CONCLUSION: Higher TyG-related metabolic indices were associated with incident PE in this large prospective cohort. PhenoAgeAccel-related decomposition and genetic susceptibility analyses were exploratory and require external replication.
Impact of simultaneous motor-cognitive training on motor capacities in older adults: A quasi-randomized parallel controlled trial
CONCLUSION: This study provides insights about the potential of simultaneous motor-cognitive training for improving motor capacities in older adults, even if its efficiency is not different to motor training. Furthermore, neither incorporated nor additional training seem to be the optimal modality. Future comparative studies are needed to draw firm conclusions.
Multi-omics profiling reveals systemic rejuvenation of the aged kidney through senolytic therapy
Cellular senescence is a key driver of kidney aging, leading to functional decline and increased susceptibility to chronic kidney disease. While the senolytic combination of dasatinib and quercetin (D + Q) has shown promise in mitigating age-related pathologies, its long-term effects and underlying multi-level systemic mechanisms in the aging kidney remain poorly defined. Here, we systematically evaluated the long-term effects of D + Q in naturally aged mice using multi-omics approaches. We show...
Longitudinal lipidomic markers of cardiac aging and risk of coronary heart disease in American Indians: the Strong Heart Family Study
Age-related decline in left ventricular (LV) diastolic function is a hallmark of cardiac aging and an early precursor to cardiovascular disease. While dyslipidemia is a known driver of coronary heart disease (CHD), the molecular pathways linking lipid metabolism to cardiac aging and subsequent CHD risk remain poorly understood. Furthermore, longitudinal lipidomic profiling of cardiac aging in large human populations has not been systematically conducted. Using an untargeted LC-MS, we repeatedly...
Biological aging might help to explain the rising risk of early-onset cancer
No abstract
A genome-wide screen identifies that PLCG2 restrains lysosomal GCase activity
Mutations in the GBA1 gene, which encodes the lysosomal glucocerebrosidase enzyme GCase, cause the lysosomal storage disorder Gaucher disease and represent the most common genetic risk factor for Parkinson's disease (PD). These mutations deplete lysosomal GCase activity and cause accumulation of GCase substrate, glucosylceramide, and its pathological metabolite, glucosylsphingosine. Impaired GCase activity then drives immune and neuronal dysfunction in Gaucher disease and promotes pathogenic...
Alzheimer's disease proteome-wide association study implicates adaptive immunity and identifies risk genes LILRB1 and SIRPA
The rapid expansion of plasma proteomic data and protein quantitative trait loci (pQTLs) provides an opportunity to identify genes that confer disease risk through their effect on plasma protein abundance. We conducted an Alzheimer's disease (AD) proteome-wide association study (PWAS) integrating publicly available plasma cis-pQTL data (1348 European American and 1385 African American genetically determined protein models) with AD dementia GWAS summary statistics. Whereas the African American...
Variations of global brain asymmetry are associated with aging and related diseases
Lateralization is a hallmark of brain organization, yet the structural basis underlying this phenomenon remains a critical, unresolved question in cognitive and systems neuroscience. In this study, we applied multivariate machine learning techniques to investigate variations of global brain asymmetry and their associations with cognitive functions, aging, and aging-related diseases, using large-scale datasets. Our findings revealed substantial and previously unknown structural differences...
Illuminating aging with multimodal optical metabolic imaging
Aging is intimately entangled with the reprogramming of metabolic pathways that coordinate energy production, biosynthesis, and molecular turnover. However, visualizing and understanding these metabolic underpinnings within their spatial and temporal contexts remains a major challenge. Metabolic imaging has emerged as a transformative approach that enables spatially resolved visualization of metabolic dynamics both at the molecular or cellular and organismal levels. In this review, we summarize...
Variations of global brain asymmetry are associated with aging and related diseases
Lateralization is a hallmark of brain organization, yet the structural basis underlying this phenomenon remains a critical, unresolved question in cognitive and systems neuroscience. In this study, we applied multivariate machine learning techniques to investigate variations of global brain asymmetry and their associations with cognitive functions, aging, and aging-related diseases, using large-scale datasets. Our findings revealed substantial and previously unknown structural differences...
Tetraphosphorylated phthalocyanine-based self-assembled monolayer stabilizes perovskite photovoltaics
The self-assembled monolayer (SAM) has driven the rapid increase in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, the operation stability of these PSCs under real conditions continues to be challenging. We developed an SAM based on phthalocyanine, which has a structurally robust framework with chemically stable bonds that enhance photostability. Tetraphosphorylation further enables the firmly locked phthalocyanine at the interface, which improves thermal...