Aging & Longevity

As the world's population ages, strategies to promote healthy longevity are critical. SIRT5, belonging to the sirtuin family, plays a key role in regulating cellular metabolism and mitochondrial homeostasis by removing post-translational modifications such as succinylation, malonylation, and glutarylisation from lysine residues of proteins. Herein, we discuss the multifunctionality of SIRT5, its impact on heart function, and its involvement as a target in geroscience for the pathogenesis of...

In response to acute stress, nucleated cells undergo various regulated cell deaths (RCDs). Alternatively and in the long run, they permanently stop proliferating with the parallel acquisition of apoptosis resistance and the senescence-associated secretory phenotype. This particular long-term stress response is referred to as cellular senescence. Terminally differentiated, anucleate red blood cells (RBCs) cannot proliferate anymore and are incapable of synthesizing proteins. RBC senescence is...

Frailty influences the risk, phenotypic expression, and course of highly prevalent neurological conditions. However, the structural, functional, and pathological changes in the brain associated with frailty remain insufficiently explored. This narrative review examines existing evidence on the functional and pathological brain correlates of frailty in both healthy adults and patients with neurological conditions, encompassing findings from neuropathology, fluid biomarkers, neuroimaging, and...

Catalysts are widely used to improve electrode reactions in static batteries. However, due to aqueous flow batteries utilizing large volumes of electrolytes, previously reported non-flowable solid-phase catalysts are inadequate for addressing challenges such as low conversion ratios and electrolyte failure, especially under low-temperature conditions. Herein, we develop functionalized carbon quantum dot-based colloidal catalytic electrolytes for Zn-Br flow batteries. This approach deviates from...

Existing proteomic aging clocks have been derived from the overall population, with little consideration of extended models tailored to individuals with different glycemic status. We aimed to quantify glycemic status-dependent proteomic signatures of aging and developed proteomic aging scores (ProAS) for health risk prediction. A total of 2923 plasma proteins were measured using Olink in 46,047 UK Biobank participants, including 37,353 with normoglycemia, 5977 with prediabetes, and 2717 with...

RNA polymerase II (Pol II)-mediated gene transcription is frequently disrupted by DNA damage from various sources. Transcription-blocking DNA lesions hinder the progression of elongating Pol II, leading to transcription stress that, if unresolved, causes cellular dysfunction, neurodegeneration and ageing. In this Review, we discuss how different types of lesion are recognized by obstructing Pol II and removed by the intricate transcription-coupled nucleotide excision repair (TC-NER) pathway,...

LncExpDB is a comprehensive expression database of human long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) across diverse biological contexts. Here, we present LncExpDB 2.0 (https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/lncexpdb/) with significant updates and enhancements as detailed below: (i) expansion of biological contexts from 9 to 15 by integrating immunotherapy, aging, metabolic diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, reproduction, and wound healing; (ii) identification of 44 752 highly expressed genes, 39 253 featured genes with...

Single-cell transcriptomics is reshaping the study of cellular physiology and pathology by revealing fine-grained cell functions and states. Interpreting these signals across cell types, organs, and species benefits from curated gene sets and tools for comparative analysis. Here, we introduce scGeneBank (http://8.142.154.29/scGeneBank or http://www.genebank.info), a database and analysis portal for gene set-driven exploration at single-cell resolution. The resource integrates 1134 carefully...

Aging not only significantly reduces the quality of life for the elderly but also poses multifaceted challenges to society. Its progression involves the synergistic interaction of multidimensional, multipathway molecular mechanisms, including mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress accumulation, chronic inflammation, and genomic damage. Quercetagetin (QG), as a natural flavanol monomer, exhibits significant potential in anti-aging due to its simultaneous targeting of key aging pathways such...

Vocal fold fibroblasts play an important role in the production of the extracellular matrix in the vocal folds. Myofibroblasts increase in the aging vocal fold lamina propria with increased alpha-smooth muscle actin. In addition to alpha-smooth muscle actin, various sarcomeric genes are expressed in myofibroblasts. However, there have been no studies on sarcomeric genes with myofibroblast differentiation in aging vocal folds. The purpose of this study was to analyze the changes and functions of...

Women with breast cancer often experience cognitive decline, an accelerated aging phenotype. While aerobic exercise may mitigate this decline, effects are inconsistent by domains, and the molecular mechanisms remain unknown. Given the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)'s responsiveness to exercise and role in cognition, we investigated BDNF methylation and rs6265, its functional SNP, with cognitive responses to aerobic exercise. Leveraging data from a randomized clinical trial which found...

CONCLUSION: The worsening of frailty with age is more common in older adults than the improvement of frailty. Among robust and pre-frail individuals, older women are more likely to experience a deterioration in frailty status. The factors influencing frailty transitions are multifaceted and complex. Therefore, when intervening in the progression of frailty among older adults, it is essential to comprehensively assess frailty risks and influencing factors based on the diverse characteristics and...

CONCLUSIONS: In order to prevent accident-related deaths, it is important to take protective measures and facilitate access to emergency medical services for geriatric individuals, especially those with chronic diseases. This is particularly important for preventing traffic accidents in urban areas and firearm and animal attacks in rural areas. Examining the causes and risk factors of accident-related deaths in the older population can promote healthier ageing. This study provides important data...

Aging is a key driver of cardiac dysfunction, promoting structural remodeling, metabolic alterations, and loss of cellular resilience. In aged hearts, extracellular matrix remodeling and collagen accumulation reduce ventricular compliance, impairing both diastolic function and stress adaptability. Cardiomyocytes exhibit diminished regenerative capacity and dysregulated stress responses, with mitochondrial dysfunction emerging as a central contributor to energy imbalance, oxidative stress, and...

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are a global source of hospitalization, long-term disability, and death. However, age, sex, and other demographics differ widely among patients and the variable characteristics of TBIs further obscure injury outcomes. Here, we used Drosophila melanogaster to assess the effects of mild, repeated TBI (multi-day, MD) compared to single, severe TBI (single-day, SD). In all genotypes tested, flies given an SD injury exhibited higher acute mortality, but in some...

Tendon degeneration is common, and its risk increases with age both in humans and horses. Tendon regeneration and healing is limited due to inherent low cell density and vascularisation, and current treatments are insufficient as indicated by scar tissue formation and a high re-injury rate. The tendon vasculature plays a crucial role in tendon homeostasis, regeneration and healing, making it a potential therapeutic target. However, the effect of ageing on the tendon microvasculature is poorly...

Down syndrome, caused by an extra copy of Chromosome 21, causes lifelong problems. One of the most common phenotypes among people with Down syndrome is premature aging, including early tissue decline, neurodegeneration, and shortened life span. Yet the reasons for premature systemic aging are a mystery and difficult to study in humans. Here we show that chromosome amplification in wild yeast also produces premature aging and shortens life span. Chromosome duplication disrupts nutrient-induced...

Aging compromises intestinal integrity, yet the chromatin changes driving this decline remain unclear. Polycomb-mediated repression is essential for silencing developmental genes, but this regulatory mechanism becomes dysregulated with age. Although shifts in Polycomb regulation within intestinal stem cells have been linked to gut aging, the Polycomb landscape of differentiated cell types remains unexplored. Differentiated cells comprise the majority of the gut epithelium and directly impact...

CONCLUSIONS: SUA is significantly associated with frailty in both community and surgical populations. In community population, a U-shaped relationship was observed, whereas only high SUA levels predict frailty perioperatively. Females are more susceptible to SUA-related frailty.

Limited identification of insulin resistance-associated loci hinders understanding of its role in cardiometabolic health, impeding therapeutic strategies. We apply three multivariate genome-wide association study approaches on homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance, insulin resistance index, fasting insulin, and ratio of triglycerides to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol from MAGIC and UK Biobank to develop a comprehensive phenotype ('mvIR'), and identify 217 independent loci,...