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Fight Aging!
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- September 15, 2010
- 11:03 PM
- 646 views
Paths to the Development of Mitochondrially Targeted Antioxidants
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Antioxidant compounds can extend life in mice provided they are localized to the mitochondria - which doesn't happen for anything you can presently buy in a bottle. Near all antioxidants that can be ingested, injected, or otherwise introduced into the body do nothing of any great significance to healthy life span, and may even be detrimental by interfering in the processes of hormesis that help to maintain and improve health. As I'm sure you know by now, mitochondria are the cell's powerplants, ........ Read more »
Galley HF. (2010) Bench-to-bedside review: Targeting antioxidants to mitochondria in sepsis. Critical care (London, England), 14(4), 230. PMID: 20804578
Demianenko IA, Vasilieva TV, Domnina LV, Dugina VB, Egorov MV, Ivanova OY, Ilinskaya OP, Pletjushkina OY, Popova EN, Sakharov IY.... (2010) Novel mitochondria-targeted antioxidants, "Skulachev-ion" derivatives, accelerate dermal wound healing in animals. Biochemistry. Biokhimiia, 75(3), 274-80. PMID: 20370605
- September 11, 2010
- 01:48 AM
- 671 views
A Representative Example of a Genetic Study of Longevity
by Reason in Fight Aging!
As the tools of genetic analysis improve by leaps and bounds, the cost falling with each advance, more and more research is taking place into genetic influences on human longevity. This is an enormously complex area of study, and has little to no relevance to any repair-based methodology for lengthening human life. Outside the field of regenerative medicine, most aging researchers do not work on repair strategies such as SENS, however. Meanwhile there is plenty of funding for genetic studies of ........ Read more »
Boyden, S., & Kunkel, L. (2010) High-Density Genomewide Linkage Analysis of Exceptional Human Longevity Identifies Multiple Novel Loci. PLoS ONE, 5(8). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012432
- September 7, 2010
- 11:37 PM
- 610 views
Why Are There No 400 Year Old Humans?
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Science is as much about investigating what we do not see as it is about investigating what we do see. For example, from a recent open access paper: Small rodents in captivity routinely reach ten times their mean life span in the wild. Why is it then that in human populations with an average life span of 40 to 80 years nobody has ever lived to 400 years old or more? This is a fine and valid question. Why do we see little variation in human life span in comparison to that of smaller and more shor........ Read more »
Turbill, C., & Ruf, T. (2010) Senescence Is More Important in the Natural Lives of Long- Than Short-Lived Mammals. PLoS ONE, 5(8). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012019
- September 7, 2010
- 04:51 AM
- 619 views
Commonalities in Risk Factors for Age-Related Disease
by Reason in Fight Aging!
A great deal of medical research into aging is built upon a foundation of correlation studies: what can we identify as more often occurring for patients who suffer from a particular age-related condition? Are there environmental factors, lifestyle choices, or genetic differences that are statistically linked to the occurrence of this condition? The next step that follows from the identification of such correlations is to pick them apart looking for commonalities. Why do these many correlations e........ Read more »
Nicole M. Probst-Hensch. (2010) Chronic age-related diseases share risk factors: do they share pathophysiological mechanisms and why does that matter?. Swiss Medical Weekly. DOI: 10.4414/smw.2010.13072
- September 3, 2010
- 11:28 PM
- 616 views
Investigating Metformin's Mechanisms
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Metformin is one of the known calorie restriction mimetics amongst drugs presently in use by the medical establishment. A calorie restriction mimetic is a drug that can reproduce some of the beneficial changes to metabolism exhibited during the practice of calorie restriction, which hopefully in turn leads to improved health and extended healthy life span. Metformin has been shown to modestly increase maximum life span in mice, though by much less than is possible through calorie restriction: ch........ Read more »
Kane DA, Anderson EJ, Price JW 3rd, Woodlief TL, Lin CT, Bikman BT, Cortright RN, & Neufer PD. (2010) Metformin selectively attenuates mitochondrial H2O2 emission without affecting respiratory capacity in skeletal muscle of obese rats. Free radical biology , 49(6), 1082-7. PMID: 20600832
- August 30, 2010
- 11:07 PM
- 525 views
Thyroid Function and Inherited Human Longevity
by Reason in Fight Aging!
There is good reason to believe that levels of thyroid hormones, and the changes in thyroid function they represent, influence human longevity. These are amongst a number of hormones in the human body that touch on almost everything you would expect to influence life span over time: metabolic rate, cell growth, use and processing of food, and so forth. You might recall studies on the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine, or T3, for example: The hypothalamo-pituitary-thyroid axis has been widely impl........ Read more »
Rozing MP, Houwing-Duistermaat JJ, Slagboom PE, Beekman M, Frölich M, de Craen AJ, Westendorp RG, & van Heemst D. (2010) Familial Longevity Is Associated with Decreased Thyroid Function. The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism. PMID: 20739380
- August 19, 2010
- 10:17 PM
- 582 views
Anoxia Tolerance and Species Longevity
by Reason in Fight Aging!
I noticed a paper on longevity in turtles today that speculates on a link between species life span and tolerance of low-oxygen environments. It seems to be as interesting a line of research as any opened up by the comparison of differences in biochemistry and longevity between species. Why are long-lived species long-lived, and can we expect the answers to translate, as for calorie restriction research, into potential benefits for human health? Forever young: mechanisms of natural anoxia tolera........ Read more »
Krivoruchko A, & Storey KB. (2010) Forever young: mechanisms of natural anoxia tolerance and potential links to longevity. Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity, 3(3), 186-98. PMID: 20716943
- August 11, 2010
- 12:32 AM
- 696 views
Impairment of Blood Vessels in the Brain Isn't a Good Thing
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Exercise correlates with a reduced risk of suffering dementia in later life, just as excess visceral fat is correlated with an increased risk of later developing dementia. The underlying mechanisms are somewhat different, but they both boil down to the quality of the blood vessels in your brain. Impaired blood vessels mean a lower blood flow or the breakages and lesions of vascular dementia - neither of which is good for you in the long term. Another issue to consider in this context is the ongo........ Read more »
Dolan H, Crain B, Troncoso J, Resnick SM, Zonderman AB, & Obrien RJ. (2010) Atherosclerosis, dementia, and Alzheimer disease in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of aging cohort. Annals of neurology, 68(2), 231-40. PMID: 20695015
- August 10, 2010
- 12:27 AM
- 729 views
An Addendum on Solar Radiation, Reliability Theory, and Longevity
by Reason in Fight Aging!
A few years ago, I pointed out some speculative work on environmental radiation during embryonic development and its possible effects on later longevity: Speculation on Solar Radiation and Longevity More on Solar Radiation and Life Expectancy The amount of [solar] radiation varies according to where you are in the world, what time of year it is and cyclic changes in the sun’s behaviour. The Equator generally gets the most radiation, and in the northern hemisphere, the usual radiation peaks wil........ Read more »
Shamir L. (2010) Does cosmic weather affect infant mortality rate?. Journal of environmental health, 73(1), 20-3. PMID: 20687328
- July 13, 2010
- 09:40 PM
- 533 views
Analysis of Gene Expression and Longevity is Forging Ahead
by Reason in Fight Aging!
The process of gene expression, in which a gene is used as a blueprint to construct a protein, is anything but static. Levels of gene expression for individual genes rise and fall with environmental circumstances, health, injury, and over the course of aging. It's a tremendously complex system, with a lot of feedback loops and switches, but fortunately the cost of analyzing gene expression profiles over a whole genome is falling rapidly. It is now feasible to run hundreds of such profiles over t........ Read more »
Sarup P, Sørensen P, & Loeschcke V. (2010) Flies selected for longevity retain a young gene expression profile. Age (Dordrecht, Netherlands). PMID: 20607427
- July 8, 2010
- 11:24 PM
- 669 views
Immunosenescence and What Can Be Done About It
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Immunosenescence is the steady degeneration of the immune system that occurs with age. For the adaptive immune system at least, researchers have a good picture as to why and how this happens - which means that they also have starting points to develop ways to reverse immunosenescence. Here is an open access review paper on the topic: The elderly frequently suffer from severe infections. Vaccination could protect them against several infectious diseases, but it can be effective only if cells that........ Read more »
Ongrádi, J., & Kövesdi, V. (2010) Factors that may impact on immunosenescence: an appraisal. Immunity , 7(1), 7. DOI: 10.1186/1742-4933-7-7
- July 1, 2010
- 12:42 AM
- 651 views
An Update on Progeria Research
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS, or just "progeria") is perhaps the best known of the accelerated aging conditions. Considerable progress has been made over the past decade in uncovering the biochemical mechanisms of this disease, and in the process it has come to seem plausible that a viable therapy for progeria may have some modest use in tackling normal aging as well. The same follows for other accelerated aging conditions, meaning that it's worth keeping an eye on this field of me........ Read more »
Marji J, O'Donoghue SI, McClintock D, Satagopam VP, Schneider R, Ratner D, J Worman H, Gordon LB, & Djabali K. (2010) Defective lamin A-Rb signaling in Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome and reversal by farnesyltransferase inhibition. PloS one, 5(6). PMID: 20559568
- June 28, 2010
- 11:37 PM
- 803 views
Regeneration of Tooth Enamel: Cavities Healed in Mice
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Dental researchers are forging ahead with their branch of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. It hasn't been long since engineered growth in situ of replacement teeth was demonstrated in rats, and now a research group has shown they can regenerate tooth enamel in mice, thereby healing cavities: A new peptide, embedded in a soft gel or a thin, flexible film and placed next to a cavity, encourages cells inside teeth to regenerate in about a month ... The gel or thin film contains a pepti........ Read more »
Fioretti, F., Mendoza-Palomares, C., Helms, M., Al Alam, D., Richert, L., Arntz, Y., Rinckenbach, S., Garnier, F., Haïkel, Y., Gangloff, S.... (2010) Nanostructured Assemblies for Dental Application. ACS Nano, 4(6), 3277-3287. DOI: 10.1021/nn100713m
- June 25, 2010
- 10:24 PM
- 724 views
Another Illustration as to Why There Will Be Many, Many Genetic Contributions to Longevity
by Reason in Fight Aging!
As I mentioned not so long ago, there will most likely prove to be a great many subtle and overlapping genetic variants of human longevity. However, very few of them will be important in the sense that they will lead to ways to significantly increase human life span through new medicine. The effective way to greatly increase human longevity is to learn to repair the biochemical damage of aging, not to tinker with metabolism to slow down the rate at which damage occurs. In any case, here is an ex........ Read more »
Michal Jazwinski S, Kim S, Dai J, Li L, Bi X, Jiang JC, Arnold J, Batzer MA, Walker JA, Welsh DA.... (2010) HRAS1 and LASS1 with APOE are associated with human longevity and healthy aging. Aging cell. PMID: 20569235
- June 18, 2010
- 10:44 PM
- 646 views
Naked Mole Rats Do Not Suffer From Cancer
by Reason in Fight Aging!
When it comes to wandering Methuselah's zoo in search of comparisons between species that might lead to greater understanding of human longevity - and how to increase it - the naked mole rat stands out as a prominent point of interest. It lives for something like nine times longer than some similar rodent species, and appears to have unusually resilient biochemistry for a mammal. Naked Mole-Rats and Negligible Senescence Built Differently, Down in the Membranes You might recall that different fa........ Read more »
Liang S, Mele J, Wu Y, Buffenstein R, & Hornsby PJ. (2010) Resistance to experimental tumorigenesis in cells of a long-lived mammal, the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber). Aging cell. PMID: 20550519
- June 17, 2010
- 12:38 AM
- 684 views
Ash-2, Another Longevity Gene in Worms
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Researchers have been turning up quite the trove of longevity-influencing genes and processes in nematode worms of late. Here is the latest: Study identifies proteins that modulate life span in worms The gene with the most pronounced effect, Ash-2, makes a protein that functions as a methyltransferase - meaning it works together with other proteins to add a chemical tag called a methyl group to a component of a cell's DNA packaging machinery, which is known as a histone. The presence or absence ........ Read more »
Greer, E., Maures, T., Hauswirth, A., Green, E., Leeman, D., Maro, G., Han, S., Banko, M., Gozani, O., & Brunet, A. (2010) Members of the H3K4 trimethylation complex regulate lifespan in a germline-dependent manner in C. elegans. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature09195
- June 12, 2010
- 12:26 AM
- 776 views
Structural Causes of Increasing Life Expectancy
by Reason in Fight Aging!
As I'm sure you're all aware by now, human life expectancy for both young and old in the most developed regions of the world is slowly increasing, and this has been the case for some time. As medical technology advances and our wealth grows, we benefit in ways that lead to less biochemical damage to the complex machinery of our body accumulated over the course of a lifetime - and thus a greater likelihood of living longer. That the medical and research establishments have achieved this ongoing b........ Read more »
Rousson, V., & Paccaud, F. (2010) A set of indicators for decomposing the secular increase of life expectancy. Population Health Metrics, 8(1), 18. DOI: 10.1186/1478-7954-8-18
- June 10, 2010
- 10:17 PM
- 669 views
Building the Foundation of Tomorrow's Immune System
by Reason in Fight Aging!
The human immune system of tomorrow will look, conceptually, a lot like today's software defenses: Scientists are making real inroads into replicating and controlling the cells and mechanisms of our immune system. Producing immune cells, directing their actions, deciphering the biochemistry of pathogens - all these pieces are waiting to be put together as a bioartificial immune system, many times more selective, efficient and resistant to damage than the basic version we're all equipped with. .......... Read more »
Hoshino, Y., Koide, H., Urakami, T., Kanazawa, H., Kodama, T., Oku, N., & Shea, K. (2010) Recognition, Neutralization, and Clearance of Target Peptides in the Bloodstream of Living Mice by Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Nanoparticles: A Plastic Antibody. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 132(19), 6644-6645. DOI: 10.1021/ja102148f
- June 10, 2010
- 09:13 AM
- 621 views
There Will Be Ten Thousand Subtle Gene Variants of Human Longevity
by Reason in Fight Aging!
There will be ten thousand subtle gene variants of human longevity. Or rather, these differences between individuals most likely exist now and will be steadily uncovered in the years ahead as the cost of DNA sequencing continues to fall. Most of these longevity-associated genetic variants will look much like this one: an association discovered by comparing long-lived people to average members of the population, and neither terribly exciting nor particularly exploitable: Cytokines are crucial for........ Read more »
Khabour OF, & Barnawi JM. (2010) Association of longevity with IL-10 -1082 G/A and TNF-alpha-308 G/A polymorphisms. International journal of immunogenetics. PMID: 20518833
- May 27, 2010
- 12:22 AM
- 668 views
EGF Pathway Found to Influence Nematode Longevity
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Researchers have uncovered what might be a new set of genes and protein mechanisms that influence healthy longevity: the epidermal growth factor or EGF pathway. The work was carried out in nematode worms, but the track record of such metabolic influences upon longevity carrying through into higher animals is pretty good so far. The epidermal growth factor (EGF) peptide induces cellular proliferation through the EGF receptor ... Inhibitors of the EGF receptor are being pursued as potential cancer........ Read more »
Iwasa H, Yu S, Xue J, & Driscoll M. (2010) Novel EGF Pathway Regulators Modulate C. elegans Healthspan and Lifespan via EGF Receptor, PLC-gamma and IP3R Activation. Aging cell. PMID: 20497132
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