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Fight Aging!
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- August 30, 2010
- 11:07 PM
- 38 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
- 59 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
- 69 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
- 81 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
- 112 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
- 121 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
- 112 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
- 151 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
- 197 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
- 175 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
- 139 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
- 167 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
- 148 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
- 145 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
- 166 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
- May 20, 2010
- 12:48 AM
- 165 views
Trehalose and Nematode Worm Longevity
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Researchers interested in metabolic manipulation as a path to extended healthy longevity continue to identify potential compounds to feed into the long drug development process. Many such compounds begin with worm or fly life span studies, as the major known genes associated with metabolism and life span are conserved between species - all the way from worms up to we humans. If a compound can make a fly live longer and can be shown to act on genes and mechanisms already associated with calorie r........ Read more »
Honda Y, Tanaka M, & Honda S. (2010) Trehalose extends longevity in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Aging cell. PMID: 20477758
- May 18, 2010
- 11:43 PM
- 184 views
Applying Reliability Theory to Aging
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Reliability theory is, put very simply, a way of modeling and predicting the failure modes and mean time to failure of complex systems with many redundant parts subject to wear and tear. Reliability theory has seen a great deal of use in the electronics industry, amongst many others, but the human body is also a complex system that can be considered in these terms. Looking at our life spans and age-related illnesses in the context of reliability theory and the accumulating failure of redundant s........ Read more »
Mao L, Roemer I, Nebrich G, Klein O, Koppelstaetter A, Hin SC, Hartl D, & Zabel C. (2010) Aging in mouse brain is a cell/tissue-level phenomenon exacerbated by proteasome loss. Journal of proteome research. PMID: 20469937
- May 13, 2010
- 11:24 PM
- 170 views
Mitochodrial DNA in the Nucleus and Species Life Span Differences
by Reason in Fight Aging!
A large merged double edition of the journal Rejuvenation Research is now online, bringing with it a lot of papers to look through. I thought I'd direct your attention to one of those many papers, as it presents an interesting evolutionary background to the SENS approach to the mitochondrial DNA damage that accumulates with age. Our mitochondria are biological power plants within our cells, the evolved descendants of symbiotic bacterial species. They convert food into ATP, the chemical used as f........ Read more »
Muradian, K., Lehmann, G., & Fraifeld, V. (2010) NUMT (“New Mighty”) Hypothesis of Longevity. Rejuvenation Research, 13(2-3), 152-155. DOI: 10.1089/rej.2009.0974
- May 5, 2010
- 08:47 PM
- 210 views
Grow Fat and Suffer the Consequences
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Excess visceral fat tissue and other side-effects of the sort of high-calorie, low-exercise lifestyle required to pack on the fat will do you great harm in the long term. Getting fat is a choice is for the vast majority of people, a choice made again and again day after day by deciding to eat more calories and skip exercise in favor of other activities. For 99.9% of the audience here: you're not special, and there's nothing in your genes that's making it noticeably easier to gain weight or harde........ Read more »
Ginter E, & Simko V. (2010) Diabetes type 2 pandemic in 21st century. Bratislavske lekarske listy, 111(3), 134-7. PMID: 20437822
- April 29, 2010
- 09:28 PM
- 237 views
The Immune System Wears Out Faster With Stress
by Reason in Fight Aging!
If the immune system is chronically stressed, such as by organ transplants or HIV infection, then it ages noticeably faster - in effect the immune system wears down with overuse like a burdened machine. You might look on this sort of outcome as a much faster burn through the normal process of immune system use and degeneration with age, and it has consequences in terms of health and life expectancy. For example: Study links liver transplantation to accelerated cellular aging The University of Ca........ Read more »
Desai S, & Landay A. (2010) Early immune senescence in HIV disease. Current HIV/AIDS reports, 7(1), 4-10. PMID: 20425052
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