“We have long known that oxidative stress and inflammation are involved in making arteries unhealthy over time, but we didn’t know why arteries begin to get inflamed and stressed. Something is triggering this,” Seals said. “We now suspect that, with age, the gut microbiota begins producing toxic molecules, including TMAO, which get into the blood stream, cause inflammation and oxidative stress and damage tissue.”
As our collection of resident gut bacteria changes with age, it increasingly produces harmful metabolites that damage veins and blood vessels, driving disease, a new study suggests.
Last year, resTORbio announced the positive results of its phase 2b human trial, which targeted the aging immune system with an immune system-boosting drug. Now, the company has announced the news that its therapy is moving to a phase 3 study later this year after successful negotiation with the FDA.
Targeting the mTOR pathway of aging
ResTORbio is a biopharmaceutical company that is developing therapies that directly target the aging processes in order to prevent or cure age-related diseases. Its primary candidate drug is RTB101, which targets part of the mTOR pathway, one of the pathways involved in aging.
The link between heart disease and depression could be inflammation, research suggests.
The two conditions have been heavily linked to each other for years but scientists have struggled to explain why this is.
Now experts have found inflammation — the body’s first line of defence — could be to blame.
A common calcium-channel blocking heart medication has been tentatively linked to increased risk of sudden cardiac arrest. The research comes from the European Sudden Cardiac Arrest network (ESCAPE-NET), though additional work is needed to determine whether the findings can be replicated. At the heart of the study were medications amlodipine and nifedipine, which are prescribed for high blood pressure and chest pain called angina.
Researchers with the Stanford University School of Medicine found in a study sponsored by Apple and released Saturday that the company’s smartwatches can detect irregular heart rhythms.
Of the approximately 400,000 participants using Apple Watches in the eight-month study, 0.5 percent, or about 2,000 people, were sent irregular heart rhythm notifications.
“The results of the Apple Heart Study highlight the potential role that innovative digital technology can play in creating more predictive and preventive health care,” Lloyd Minor, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine, said in a statement.
Clumps of harmful proteins that interfere with brain functions have been partially cleared in mice using nothing but light and sound.
Research led by MIT has found strobe lights and a low pitched buzz can be used to recreate brain waves lost in the disease, which in turn remove plaque and improve cognitive function in mice engineered to display Alzheimer’s-like behaviour.
It’s a little like using light and sound to trigger their own brain waves to help fight the disease.
