Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: biotech/medical – Page 511

NAD depletion in skeletal muscle does not compromise muscle function or accelerate aging

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) is a ubiquitous electron carrier essential for energy metabolism and post-translational modification of numerous regulatory proteins. Dysregulations of NAD metabolism are widely regarded as detrimental to health, with NAD depletion commonly implicated in aging. However, the extent to which cellular NAD concentration can decline without adverse consequences remains unclear. To investigate this, we generated a mouse model in which nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT)-mediated NAD+ biosynthesis was disrupted in adult skeletal muscle. The intervention resulted in an 85% reduction in muscle NAD+ abundance while maintaining tissue integrity and functionality, as demonstrated by preserved muscle morphology, contractility, and exercise tolerance. This absence of functional impairments was further supported by intact mitochondrial respiratory capacity and unaltered muscle transcriptomic and proteomic profiles. Furthermore, lifelong NAD depletion did not accelerate muscle aging or impair whole-body metabolism. Collectively, these findings suggest that NAD depletion does not contribute to age-related decline in skeletal muscle function.

#Aging #Longevity aging and longevity.

NAD depletion in skeletal muscle does not impair tissue integrity and function or accelerate aging, as shown in a mouse model with an 85% decrease in muscle NAD+ levels. Muscle structure, metabolism, and mitochondrial function remain unaffected, suggesting that NAD depletion does not drive age-related muscle decline.

Lactate mediates training of our innate defenses, research shows

The BCG vaccine protects against tuberculosis, but by inducing trained immunity it also protects against many more respiratory infections. International research led by Radboud University Medical Center shows how this process works. Lactate, a product of scaled-up energy production, appears to play a leading role.

The immune system protects people in two ways. Innate immunity protects us from birth against many bacteria and viruses, while adaptive immunity builds protection against individual pathogens after a prior infection. The adaptive immune system is aided by vaccines that protect us against new pathogens without having to go through an infection. In this way, vaccines contribute greatly to our health.

Once-a-Day Pill Slows Loss of Lung Function in Bronchiectasis Patients

Results of a large, global clinical trial spanning five continents with over 1,700 patients with bronchiectasis, published this April in the New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrated benefits of an investigational, once-a-day pill called brensocatib as a therapy for the chronic lung condition.

The clinical trial findings are important, as there are currently no FDA-approved medications for bronchiectasis, a chronic condition with persistent lung airway inflammation and infection. Bronchiectasis can often stem from various injuries to the airways causing the ‘bronchial’ tubes leading to the lungs to become permanently enlarged, and more prone to infection and chronic inflammation.

Engineered enzymes enable precise control of mitochondrial DNA mutation levels in cells

Mitochondrial diseases affect approximately 1 in 5,000 people worldwide, causing debilitating symptoms ranging from muscle weakness to stroke-like episodes. Some of these conditions result from mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), the genetic material housed in these organelles. For patients with the common m.3243A>G mutation, which can cause MELAS syndrome (mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes) and diabetes mellitus, treatments remain limited.

How ‘jumping genes’ infiltrate DNA during cell division

Viruses are known to use the genetic machinery of the human cells they invade to make copies of themselves. As part of the process, viruses leave behind remnants throughout the genetic material (genomes) of humans. The virus-like insertions, called “transposable elements,” are snippets of genetic material even simpler than viruses that also use host cell machinery to replicate.

Nearly all these inserted elements have been silenced by our cells’ defense mechanisms over time, but a few, nicknamed “jumping genes,” can still move around the human genome like viruses. Just one, called long interspersed nuclear element 1 (LINE-1), can still move by itself.

As an element type that behaves like the retrovirus HIV, the LINE-1 “retrotransposon” is first copied into a molecule of RNA, the genetic material that partners with DNA, and then the RNA LINE-1 copy is converted back into DNA in a new place in the genome.

Cure for male pattern baldness given boost by sugar discovery

In a study published in the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology, researchers have discovered that a sugar called 2-deoxy-D-ribose (2dDR), which plays a fundamental role in various biological processes both in animals and humans, can stimulate hair to regrow in mice.

Over the past eight years, scientists from Sheffield and COMSATS University Pakistan have been studying how the sugar can help to heal wounds by promoting the formation of new blood vessels. During the research, the team also noticed that hair around the healing wounds appeared to grow more quickly compared to those that hadn’t been treated.

To explore this further, the scientists established a model of testosterone driven hair loss in mice — similar to the cause of pattern baldness in men. The team found that applying a small dose of the naturally occurring sugar helped to form new blood vessels, which led to hair regrowing.

Findings from the study show that the deoxy ribose sugar is as effective at regrowing hair as Minoxidil — an existing drug used to treat hair loss. However, the research offers a potential alternative approach to stimulating hair growth through a naturally occurring deoxy ribose sugar-from 2024.

The key to curing male pattern baldness — a condition that affects up to 50 per cent of men worldwide — could lie in a sugar that naturally occurs in the human body, according to scientists at the University of Sheffield.

Human skeletal development and regeneration are shaped by functional diversity of stem cells across skeletal sites

Ambrosi and colleagues profile human skeletal stem cells (hSSCs) across ten fetal skeletal sites and from patients throughout adulthood, identifying, mapping, and functionally testing four distinct hSSC subtypes. Skeletal aging and disease are characterized by a dominant fibrogenic hSSC variant, but targeting defined gene regulatory networks reinstates functional hSSC diversity.

Scientists May Have Found a Natural Alternative to Ozempic

Scientists may have identified a way to naturally regulate blood sugar levels and sugar cravings in a similar fashion to drugs like Ozempic.

In mice and humans, the key to unlocking this natural process was found to be a gut microbe and its metabolites – the compounds it produces during digestion.

By increasing the abundance of this one gut microbe in diabetic mice, researchers led by a team at Jiangnan University in China showed they can “orchestrate the secretion of glucagon-like peptide-1”

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