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Category: biotech/medical – Page 82

Using an AI tool, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have analyzed brain images from 70-year-olds and estimated their brains’ biological age. They found that factors detrimental to vascular health, such as inflammation and high glucose levels, are associated with an older-looking brain, while healthy lifestyles were linked to brains with a younger appearance.

The results are presented in a paper titled “Biological brain age and resilience in cognitively unimpaired 70-year-old individuals” in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

Every year, over 20,000 people in Sweden develop some form of dementia, with Alzheimer’s disease accounting for approximately two-thirds of cases. However, the speed at which the brain ages is affected by various risk and health factors.

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Furthermore, GDF-15 levels have been positively associated with the aging process. In fact, Tanaka et al. (Tanaka et al. 2018) showed that this cytokine had the strongest positive correlation with age in humans, and several reports describe higher levels of GDF-15 in older individuals (Semba et al. 2020; Doerstling et al. 2018; Liu et al. 2020). Aging is characterized by a decline in physiological function and changes in body composition, being a major risk factor for a variety of chronic diseases. As such, GDF-15 is also associated with several age-related diseases, including cardiovascular disease (Echouffo-Tcheugui et al. 2021), cancer (Wischhusen et al. 2020), metabolic syndrome (Ho et al. 2023; Carballo-Casla et al. 2022), or diabetes (Ouyang et al. 2020; Merchant et al. 2023), among others (Candia et al. 2021; Iglesias et al. 2023). In addition, it has been proposed as a biomarker for the risk of death in patients with cardiovascular conditions and an accurate all-cause mortality marker (Candia et al. 2021; Iglesias et al. 2023; Nopp et al. 2021). GDF-15 has also been positively associated with deteriorated muscle function and sarcopenia (Semba et al. 2020; Kim et al. 2022, 2020; Nakajima et al. 2019; Lee et al. 2022), a highly prevalent condition among the elderly that increases the risk of frailty (Picca et al. 2020).

It is widely accepted that human aging may be influenced by epigenetic alterations (López-Otín et al. 2023). In this sense, age biomarkers based on DNA methylation have proven useful in predicting the risk of age-related diseases and mortality (Fransquet et al. 2019). Among several developed epigenetic clocks, DNAm GrimAge has shown a higher prediction capacity of mortality and morbidity risk (Lu et al. 2022). Notably, GDF-15 is one of the markers included for the calculation of this clock (Lu et al. 2019). Thus, understanding the interplay between GDF-15 and aging can be crucial for improving the assessment of and management of age-associated conditions.

For all this, the aim of this study was to characterize the changes in circulating GDF-15 levels with age in a population of healthy individuals from the Balearic Islands and investigate its potential associations with different epigenetic and biological clocks, physical performance and other age-related biomarkers.

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Mayo Clinic researchers have identified interleukin-23 receptor (IL-23R) as a significant biomarker of cellular senescence and aging in both mice and humans. Experiments show that IL-23R levels in the bloodstream increase with age and can decrease, reflecting senescent cell clearing, with senolytic therapies.

Cellular senescence occurs when cells stop dividing but do not trigger apoptosis mechanisms that would allow them to die naturally. Instead, they are stuck in a zombie-like state, where they still have the urge to feed and carry out metabolic activities, but with increasingly incoherent cell signaling and increased pro-inflammatory cytokine secretions.

Senescent cell activity has been linked to several age-related diseases, including those of the immune, cardiovascular, metabolic, pulmonary, musculoskeletal and neurological systems.

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The innovation offers potential advancements in diagnosing conditions like arrhythmia and Alzheimer’s.

Researchers at MIT have unveiled a biosensing technique that uses tiny, wireless antennas to monitor electrical signals in biological systems with unprecedented precision.

By eliminating the need for wires and amplifiers, the innovation simplifies cellular studies, offering potential advancements in diagnosing conditions like arrhythmia and Alzheimer’s and enabling more targeted treatments.

Electrical signals are fundamental to cellular communication, yet traditional methods for measuring them are cumbersome and limited in scope.

Continue reading “MIT creates tiny antennas to track brain and heart disease signals” | >

In an era of medical care that is increasingly aiming at more targeted medication therapies, more individual therapies and more effective therapies, doctors and scientists want to be able to introduce molecules to the biological system to undertake specific actions.

Examples are and , which for widespread use need to be both effective and inexpensive. In service of this goal, a trio of researchers has used machine learning to design a way to remove molecules inside a molecular cage. Their study is published in Physical Review Letters.

The research, whose lead author is Ryan K. Krueger of Harvard University, but to which each co-author contributed equally, uses differentiable to design complex reactions to direct the system to specific outcomes.

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A Japanese university and construction company have partnered on research to develop a lunar habitat capable of generating artificial gravity, enabling people to live on the Moon under conditions similar to those on Earth.

Kyoto University and Kajima Corp. aim to construct a ground-based prototype of the “Neo Lunar Glass,” a paraboloid structure that generates gravity through rotation, by the 2030s.

The technology is expected to address concerns about the adverse effects of prolonged exposure to microgravity on the human body, including bone and muscle loss.

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Chronic fatigue syndrome creates conditions where pathogen-killing immune T cells become exhausted, according to a new Cornell University study.

The study’s authors knew the immune system was dysregulated in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) but wondered which parts shift with the condition.

A systematic exploration revealed that key CD8+ T cells displayed one of the most pronounced signatures of dysregulation, with signs of constant stimulation that lead to an exhausted state, a condition that is well-studied in cancer.

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Smartwatch bands from popular brands have been found to contain high concentrations of toxic for forever chemicals, also known as PFAS (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances). These synthetic chemicals do not break down easily in the environment and build in our bodies over time, hence earning them the nickname of forever chemicals.

PFAS are used in various consumer products, including non-stick cookware, water-resistant clothes, carpets, mattresses, food wraps, and more. Exposure to PFAS has been linked to serious health problems, including increased risks of certain cancers, hormone disruption, weakened immune systems, and developmental delays in children. These chemicals can leach into water, soil, and food, making them a growing public health concern worldwide.

A new study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters has found that smartwatch bands made of fluoroelastomers contain a very high concentration of a forever chemical known as perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA).

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