Aging & Longevity News and Discussions

[raklian]

[weatheriscool]

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.

[raklian]

[weatheriscool]

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.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[raklian]

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....

[weatheriscool]

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.

[weatheriscool]

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."

[raklian]

[wjfox]

SuperAger brains contain ‘super neurons’

September 30, 2022

Neurons in an area of the brain responsible for memory (known as the entorhinal cortex) were significantly larger in SuperAgers compared to cognitively average peers, individuals with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and even individuals 20 to 30 years younger than SuperAgers — who are aged 80 years and older, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

These neurons did not harbor tau tangles, a signature hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

“The remarkable observation that SuperAgers showed larger neurons than their younger peers may imply that large cells were present from birth and are maintained structurally throughout their lives,” said lead author Tamar Gefen, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “We conclude that larger neurons are a biological signature of the SuperAging trajectory.”

The study of SuperAgers with exceptional memory was the first to show that these individuals carry a unique biological signature that comprises larger and healthier neurons in the entorhinal cortex that are relatively void of tau tangles (pathology).

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2 ... rons/?fj=1

[weatheriscool]

Super ager brains contain 'super neurons'
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09- ... urons.html
by Northwestern University

Neurons in an area of the brain responsible for memory (known as the entorhinal cortex) were significantly larger in super agers (80 years and older) compared to cognitively average peers, individuals with early-stage Alzheimer's disease and even individuals 20 to 30 years younger than super agers, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

These neurons did not harbor tau tangles, a signature hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.

"The remarkable observation that super agers showed larger neurons than their younger peers may imply that large cells were present from birth and are maintained structurally throughout their lives," said lead author Tamar Gefen, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "We conclude that larger neurons are a biological signature of the SuperAging trajectory."

The study of super agers with exceptional memory was the first to show that these individuals carry a unique biological signature that comprises larger and healthier neurons in the entorhinal cortex that are relatively void of tau tangles (pathology).

The study will be published Sept. 30 in The Journal of Neuroscience.

The Northwestern Super Aging Research Program studies unique individuals known as super agers, who are 80+ year-olds who show exceptional memory at least as good as individuals 20 to 30 years their junior.

[wjfox]

Super ager brains contain 'super neurons'
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09- ... urons.html
by Northwestern University

Neurons in an area of the brain responsible for memory (known as the entorhinal cortex) were significantly larger in super agers (80 years and older) compared to cognitively average peers, individuals with early-stage Alzheimer's disease and even individuals 20 to 30 years younger than super agers, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

These neurons did not harbor tau tangles, a signature hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.

"The remarkable observation that super agers showed larger neurons than their younger peers may imply that large cells were present from birth and are maintained structurally throughout their lives," said lead author Tamar Gefen, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "We conclude that larger neurons are a biological signature of the SuperAging trajectory."

The study of super agers with exceptional memory was the first to show that these individuals carry a unique biological signature that comprises larger and healthier neurons in the entorhinal cortex that are relatively void of tau tangles (pathology).

The study will be published Sept. 30 in The Journal of Neuroscience.

The Northwestern Super Aging Research Program studies unique individuals known as super agers, who are 80+ year-olds who show exceptional memory at least as good as individuals 20 to 30 years their junior.

Check the previous post...

[wjfox]

The brain undergoes a great “rewiring” after age 40

September 24, 2022

In a systematic review recently published in the journal Psychophysiology, researchers from Monash University in Australia swept through the scientific literature, seeking to summarize how the connectivity of the human brain changes over our lifetimes. The gathered evidence suggests that in the fifth decade of life (that is, after a person turns 40), the brain starts to undergo a radical “rewiring” that results in diverse networks becoming more integrated and connected over the ensuing decades, with accompanying effects on cognition.

[...]

Early on, in our teenage and young adult years, the brain seems to have numerous, partitioned networks with high levels of inner connectivity, reflecting the ability for specialized processing to occur. That makes sense, as this is the time when we are learning how to play sports, speak languages, and develop talents. Around our mid-40s, however, that starts to change. Instead, the brain begins becoming less connected within those separate networks and more connected globally across networks. By the time we reach our 80s, the brain tends to be less regionally specialized and instead broadly connected and integrated.

[...]

But the news isn’t all bad for the aging brain. “Tasks relying on predominantly automatic or well-practiced processes are less impacted by age or may even increase slightly across the lifespan, such as vocabulary and general knowledge,” the authors wrote.

https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/great-b ... er-age-40/

[raklian]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[Vakanai]

I noticed that it stopped at mere millennia. If science progresses to that point, outside of certain cataclysmic events, there's no reason why our life spans couldn't extend into the billions or even trillions of years. I want my death to be caused more or less by sheer entropy so far flung in the future all the visible light from other stars will have long since winked out of view. Just some Dyson sphere colony around one of the last stars in the universe. And perhaps even outlasting that burning up its dead remnants as fuel for millions of years more.

And even that hypothetical is discounting the possibility we exist in a multiverse and may one day discover a way to jump ship into a younger universe. For some reason people never seem to contemplate life lasting that long. Even in the most fantastical sci-fi and fantasy settings the oldest characters are a few thousand years maybe. I'd love to see more speculative fiction about what life might be like if we can live into the billions or trillions.

[wjfox]

I noticed that it stopped at mere millennia.

For some reason, Twitter's poll setups are incredibly restrictive. Maximum four options, each with 25 character limit. I would like to have added more.

[wjfox]