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New evidence that optimists live longer

Exceptional longevity: the hunt for associated factors has concentrated on #genomics and biomarkers. What has been missed? Optimism. And it’s dose-dependent.

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), National Center for PTSD at VA Boston Healthcare System and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, have found that individuals with greater optimism are more likely to live longer and to achieve “exceptional longevity,” that is, living to age 85 or older.

Optimism refers to a general expectation that good things will happen, or believing that the future will be favorable because we can control important outcomes. Whereas research has identified many that increase the likelihood of diseases and premature death, much less is known about positive psychosocial factors that can promote .

The study was based on 69,744 women and 1,429 men. Both groups completed survey measures to assess their level of optimism, as well as their overall health and such as diet, smoking and alcohol use. Women were followed for 10 years, while the men were followed for 30 years. When individuals were compared based on their initial levels of optimism, the researchers found that the most optimistic men and women demonstrated, on average, an 11 to 15 percent longer lifespan, and had 50–70 percent greater odds of reaching 85 years old compared to the least optimistic groups. The results were maintained after accounting for age, demographic factors such as educational attainment, chronic diseases, depression and also health behaviors, such as alcohol use, exercise, diet and primary care visits.

CRISPR slows the growth of triple-negative breast cancer in mice

A gene called Lipocalin 2 is a major culprit in triple-negative breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease for which there are few effective, targeted treatments. A team of researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital has developed an innovative way to knock out the gene using the editing system CRISPR and has shown its potential for treating triple-negative breast tumors in mice.

But to make CRISPR work in breast tumors, the researchers had to figure out a way to deliver the technology into breast cancer cells without using a virus or something else that might cause off-target side effects. So they encapsulated it in nanoparticles and targeted it at ICAM-1, a molecule expressed on breast cancer cells.

The encapsulated CRISPR system knocked out Lipocalin 2 with 81% efficiency in tumor samples, and when injected into mouse models of triple-negative breast cancer, it slowed tumor growth by 77%. The researchers reported the results in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The journal club will be returning on 27th August with your host Dr. Oliver Medvedik and special guest Alexander Tyshkovskiy

The journal club will be returning on 27th August with your host Dr. Oliver Medvedik and special guest Alexander Tyshkovskiy, a Ph.D. student who works at the Gladyshev Lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston. The topic for the journal club this month will be the recent paper, “Identification and Application of Gene Expression Signatures Associated with Lifespan Extension” published in Cell Metabolism. This study is Alexander Tyshkovskiys project and forms part of his Ph.D. so we are fortunate to have him joining us on the show to talk us through this fascinating study.

Sci-Hub link here: https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art…3119303729

Reducing Gut Dysbiosis Partially Alleviates Alzheimer’s Symptoms

In a recent study, a team from the Neurobiota Research Center in Korea has discovered that reducing gut dysbiosis partially alleviates the cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer’s disease. This may seem puzzling, as the gut and the brain are separate and relatively distant organs, but this research makes sense in the context of chronic inflammation.

Inflammaging

Under normal circumstances, inflammation is a short-term measure in response to infection: immune cells are directed towards the inflamed area and handle the infection, and then the inflammation dies down. However, chronic inflammation causes harm to our organs; it is the main form of altered intercellular communication, which is one of the hallmarks of aging. The protein complex NF-kB, the master regulator of inflammation, is the main culprit of inflammaging, and it is specifically discussed in this paper.

The brain-gut connection: how TCM has known for centuries what Western medicine is now discovering

Aren Jay shared this cogent article to my Timeline… It is not new even Hippocrates was able to determine that the gut causes and or assists in all diseases. But the 19th and 20th centuries researchers began saying that microbes are good for mankind which sent science reeling through generations until this day… Respect r.p.berry & AEWR wherein we have developed a formula and Algorithm that deals with this very serious problem completely. A very expensive cure but one that will take Woman-Man past the Escape Velocity so many have written about… https://gerevivify.blogspot.com/

Recent research has found that bacteria in the gut can affect people’s mental state, leading to mood, cognition and behavioural problems. But in TCM, the link between the gut and all of the body’s organs has long been recognised.

‘Antibiotic apocalypse’ New diseases and antibiotic resistance major threat to humanity

Dubbed ‘antibiotic apocalypse’, the antibiotic resistant superbugs have become a massive cause for concern for health professionals as their numbers continue to rise. Such is the worry around antibiotic superbugs that experts believe that they will claim 10 million lives by 2050, with 700,000 people dying a year after catching the infections, according to a recent report from the American Chemical Society’s Enviromental Science and Technology Journal. Humans, especially in the West, have become so reliant on antibiotics to help cure illnesses that many of the bacteria that they are trying to fight have become resistant to the drugs through evolution.

Scientists zero in on cancer treatments using CRISPR

Chemotherapy works off of a basic premise: kill all rapidly-growing cells in an effort to wipe out tumor cells. The tactic, while generally effective, has quite a few off-target casualties, including cells that produce hair and cells that line the stomach.

Scientists have tried to skirt the problem by creating missile-like drugs that zero in on cancer cells specifically, sparing healthy cells.

These missile-like drugs, known as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), have been in the works for decades, but only in recent years have they made it to clinical trials, Kimberly Tsui, a genetics graduate student, told me.

A Successful Artificial Memory Has Been Created

We learn from our personal interaction with the world, and our memories of those experiences help guide our behaviors. Experience and memory are inexorably linked, or at least they seemed to be before a recent report on the formation of completely artificial memories. Using laboratory animals, investigators reverse engineered a specific natural memory by mapped the brain circuits underlying its formation. They then “trained” another animal by stimulating brain cells in the pattern of the natural memory. Doing so created an artificial memory that was retained and recalled in a manner indistinguishable from a natural one.

Memories are essential to the sense of identity that emerges from the narrative of personal experience. This study is remarkable because it demonstrates that by manipulating specific circuits in the brain, memories can be separated from that narrative and formed in the complete absence of real experience. The work shows that brain circuits that normally respond to specific experiences can be artificially stimulated and linked together in an artificial memory. That memory can be elicited by the appropriate sensory cues in the real environment. The research provides some fundamental understanding of how memories are formed in the brain and is part of a burgeoning science of memory manipulation that includes the transfer, prosthetic enhancement and erasure of memory. These efforts could have a tremendous impact on a wide range of individuals, from those struggling with memory impairments to those enduring traumatic memories, and they also have broad social and ethical implications.

In the recent study, the natural memory was formed by training mice to associate a specific odor (cherry blossoms) with a foot shock, which they learned to avoid by passing down a rectangular test chamber to another end that was infused with a different odor (caraway). The caraway scent came from a chemical called carvone, while the cherry blossom scent came from another chemical, acetophenone. The researchers found that acetophenone activates a specific type of receptor on a discrete type of olfactory sensory nerve cell.

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