Aging & Longevity News and Discussions

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raklian
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To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
weatheriscool
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Exploring the brief use of rapamycin treatment in early adulthood to extend lifespan
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-08- ... thood.html
by Max Planck Society
Imagine you could take a medicine that prevents the decline that come with age and keeps you healthy. Scientists are trying to find a drug that has these effects. The current most promising anti-aging drug is rapamycin, known for its positive effects on life and health span in experimental studies with laboratory animals. To obtain the maximum beneficial effects of the drug, it is often given lifelong. However, even at the low doses used in prevention for age-related decline, negative side effects may occur, and it is always desirable to use the lowest effective dose.

A research group at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne, Germany, has now shown in laboratory animals that brief exposure to rapamycin has the same positive effects as lifelong treatment opening new doors for a potential application in humans.

Combatting the negative effects of aging is increasingly becoming the focus of research scientists. Lifestyle changes can improve health of older people, but alone is not sufficient to prevent the ills of older age. Repurposing existing drugs for "geroprotection" is providing an additional weapon in the prevention of age-related decline. The current most promising anti-aging drug is rapamycin, a cell growth inhibitor and immunosuppressant that is normally used in cancer therapy and after organ transplantations.
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To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
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PITT pathway: Scientists discover how cells repair longevity-promoting 'recycling system'
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-pitt-path ... oting.html
by University of Pittsburgh
Today in Nature, University of Pittsburgh researchers describe for the first time a pathway by which cells repair damaged lysosomes, structures that contribute to longevity by recycling cellular trash. The findings are an important step towards understanding and treating age-related diseases driven by leaky lysosomes.

"Lysosome damage is a hallmark of aging and many diseases, particularly neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's," said lead author Jay Xiaojun Tan, Ph.D., assistant professor of cell biology at Pitt's School of Medicine and member of the Aging Institute, a partnership between Pitt and UPMC. "Our study identifies a series of steps that we believe is a universal mechanism for lysosomal repair, which we named the PITT pathway as a nod to the University of Pittsburgh."

As the cell's recycling system, lysosomes contain potent digestive enzymes that degrade molecular waste. These contents are walled off from damaging other parts of the cell with a membrane that acts like a chain link fence around a hazardous waste facility. Although breaks can occur in this fence, a healthy cell quickly repairs the damage. To learn more about this repair process, Tan teamed up with senior author Toren Finkel, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Aging Institute and distinguished professor of medicine at Pitt's School of Medicine.

First, Tan experimentally damaged lysosomes in lab-grown cells and then measured the proteins that arrived on the scene. He found that an enzyme called PI4K2A accumulated on damaged lysosomes within minutes and generated high levels of a signaling molecule called PtdIns4P.
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raklian
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wjfox wrote: Tue Sep 13, 2022 6:04 pm
It's a given we're going to find a way to achieve at least multi-century lifespans. The question is, will it happen in the lifetime of those of us who are already 40+? Hmm....
To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
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Can we live longer? Physicist makes discovery about telomeres
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-longer-ph ... meres.html
by Dagmar Aarts, Leiden University
With the aid of physics and a minuscule magnet, researchers have discovered a new structure of telomeric DNA. Telomeres are sometimes seen as the key to living longer. They protect genes from damage but get a bit shorter each time a cell divides. If they become too short, the cell dies. The new discovery will help us understand aging and disease.

Physics is not the first scientific discipline that springs to mind at the mention of DNA. But John van Noort from the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION) is one of the scientists who found the new DNA structure. A biophysicist, he uses methods from physics for biological experiments. This also caught the attention of biologists from Nanyan Technological University in Singapore. They asked him to help study the DNA structure of telomeres. They have published the results in Nature.

String of beads

In every cell of our bodies are chromosomes that carry genes that determine our characteristics (what we look like, for instance). At the ends of these chromosomes are telomeres, which protect the chromosomes from damage. They're a bit like aglets, the plastic tips at the end of a shoelace.
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New mechanism extends life of immune system
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09- ... mmune.html
by University College London
A new mechanism that slows down and may even prevent the natural aging of immune cells—one of the nine hallmarks of aging—has been identified by an international team led by UCL scientists.

Published in Nature Cell Biology, researchers say the discovery in-vitro (cells) and validated in mice was "unexpected" and believe harnessing the mechanism could extend the life of the immune system, allowing people to live healthier and longer, and would also have clinical utility for diseases such as cancer and dementia.

Explaining the study, lead author, Dr. Alessio Lanna, Honorary Professor at UCL Division of Medicine, said, "Immune cells are on constant high-alert, always ready to fight pathogens. To be effective they also must persist for decades in the body—but the strategies employed to execute this life-long protection are largely unknown.

"In this research, we sought to find out what mechanisms exist to confer longevity to immune system cells, known as T cells, at the initiation of the immune response against an antigen—a foreign substance recognized by the immune-surveillance mechanisms of defense of the body."
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To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
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