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Protecting pneumococcal infection in elderly.

The researchers. provide insights into mechanisms underlying respiratory bacterial susceptibility in the elderly.

Circadian rhythms is impaired in the aging process. The authors wanted to figure out the relation ship between impaired circadian rhythm and bacterial infections during aging.

They demonstrate that the altered circadian expression of the nuclear receptor Rev-erb-a and the apelin/apelin receptor (APJ) in aged lungs associates with dysregulated time-of-day control of pulmonary immune defenses against pneumococcal infections.

The authors found an interaction between Rev-erb-α and the apelinergic axis that controls host defenses against S. pneumoniae via alveolar macrophages. Pharmacological repression of Rev-erb-α in elderly mice resulted in greater resistance to pneumococcal infection. https://sciencemission.com/pneumococcal-infection-in-elderly

Silva Angulo et al. provide insights into mechanisms underlying respiratory bacterial susceptibility in the elderly. The authors demonstrate that the altered circadian expression of the nuclear receptor Rev-erb-α and the apelin/apelin receptor (APJ) in aged lungs associates with dysregulated time-of-day control of pulmonary immune defenses against pneumococcal infections.

Continue reading “Inhibiting bacterial gene translation using siRNA” | >

“.

Gene therapy was used to increase levels of Klotho, one of the first longevity genes discovered in the 1990’s, in mice. This led to improved physical fitness, muscular regenerative capacity, bone micrstructure, neurogenesis and a 20% increase in lifespan.

Contents:

Intro 0:00
Figure 1 — Longevity experiment follow-up and AAV treatment effectivity assessment 1:20
Figure 2 — Physical tests and histological analysis of muscular tissue from treated naturally aged animals 4:04
Figure 3 — Histological analysis of muscle from s-KL-treated animals 7 days after transplantation 6:27
Figure 4 — MicroCT structural and gene expression analysis in treated bones of 24-MO mice 7:34
Figure 5 — Histological analysis of Iba1, GFAP, and neurogenesis markers in CNS from aged animals 8:52
Figure 6 — Transcriptomic analysis of hippocampal RNA-seq data 9:59
Graphical Abstract & Conclusion 11:04.

Study reviewed:

Continue reading “Klotho Gene Therapy Increases Lifespan” | >

The healthcare industry faces a significant shift towards digital health technology, with a growing demand for real-time and continuous health monitoring and disease diagnostics [1, 2, 3]. The rising prevalence of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, coupled with an aging population, has increased the need for remote and continuous health monitoring [4, 5, 6, 7]. This has led to the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI)-based wearable sensors that can collect, analyze, and transmit real-time health data to healthcare providers so that they can make efficient decisions based on patient data. Therefore, wearable sensors have become increasingly popular due to their ability to provide a non-invasive and convenient means of monitoring patient health. These wearable sensors can track various health parameters, such as heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, skin temperature, physical activity levels, sleep patterns, and biochemical markers, such as glucose, cortisol, lactates, electrolytes, and pH and environmental parameters [1, 8, 9, 10]. Wearable health technology includes first-generation wearable technologies, such as fitness trackers, smartwatches, and current wearable sensors, and is a powerful tool in addressing healthcare challenges [2].

The data collected by wearable sensors can be analyzed using machine learning (ML) and AI algorithms to provide insights into an individual’s health status, enabling early detection of health issues and the provision of personalized healthcare [6,11]. One of the most significant advantages of AI-based wearable health technology is to promote preventive healthcare. This enables individuals and healthcare providers to proactively address symptomatic conditions before they become more severe [12,13,14,15]. Wearable devices can also encourage healthy behavior by providing incentives, reminders, and feedback to individuals, such as staying active, hydrating, eating healthily, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle by measuring hydration biomarkers and nutrients.

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Contact: Cara Martinez | Email: [email protected]

Los Angeles — April 14, 2015 – An injection of stem cells into the eye may soon slow or reverse the effects of early-stage age-related macular degeneration, according to new research from scientists at Cedars-Sinai. Currently, there is no treatment that slows the progression of the disease, which is the leading cause of vision loss in people over 65.

“This is the first study to show preservation of vision after a single injection of induced neural progenitor stem cells into a AMD-like rat model for retinal degeneration,” said Shaomei Wang, MD, PhD, lead author of the study published in the journal STEM CELLS and a research scientist in the Eye Program at the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute.

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As an initial step, we selected ARDs associated with hallmarks of aging. These included a total of 83 diseases linked to one or more hallmarks of aging, based on the taxonomy put forward in ref. 4 (Supplementary Table 2). Support for this taxonomy comes from multiple sources. Analyses of electronic health records from general practice and hospitalizations identified more than 200 diseases with incidence rates increasing with chronological age6,22. Researchers linked a subset of these ARDs to specific hallmarks of aging using several approaches: mining 1.85 million PubMed abstracts on human aging, identifying shared genes in the genome-wide association study catalog, conducting gene set enrichment analysis and analyzing disease co-occurrence networks within each hallmark4.

We confirmed the co-occurrence of ARDs within each hallmark in 492,257 participants from the UK Biobank study23. The presence of one ARD increased the risk of developing another ARD related to the same hallmark, with clustering coefficients ranging from 0.76 for LOP-specific ARDs to 0.92 for SCE-specific ARDs. These findings corroborated the hallmark-specific clustering of ARDs (Extended Data Figs. 3 and 4)23.

In time-to-event analyses of UK Biobank and FPS participants without these ARDs at baseline (n ranging from 477,325 to 492,294 in the UK Biobank and from 278,272 to 286,471 in the FPS, depending on the social disadvantage indicator and ARD), social disadvantage—indicated by education and adult SES (neighborhood deprivation)—was associated with a higher risk of developing ARDs. In the UK Biobank, the age-, sex-and ethnicity-adjusted hazard ratio for developing any ARD was 1.31 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.29–1.33) for individuals with low compared with high education. For individuals with high versus low adult SES, the hazard ratio was 1.21 (95% CI 1.20–1.23). In the FPS, the corresponding hazard ratios were 1.28 (95% CI 1.25–1.31) and 1.23 (95% CI 1.20–1.27), respectively.

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1. Introduction.

The natural production of EGF, a short polypeptide hormone, promotes the processes of proliferation, expansion, and division of cells [1]. For in vitro cell culture, EGF functions as a growth factor [2] and has an effective mitogenic effect on endothelial cells, fibroblasts, and most epithelial tissues. Its biological functions rely on associating itself with a specific cell membrane receptor [3]. Because EGF plays a crucial role as a mitogen in the proliferation of various cell types both in vivo and in vitro, it has been used in the therapeutic and cosmetic areas [4] to cover scars and reduce the appearance of aging skin [1]. Moreover, recombinant EGF is used topically for diabetic foot ulcers [5]. The structures and properties of proteins vary; favorable conditions are necessary for conformation, stability, and proper function. In contrast, a protein degrades, denatures, or precipitates when it is exposed to unfavorable conditions or when its natural environment changes suddenly. Recombinant human EGF is most frequently degraded by oxidation and deamidation [6]. These reactions typically have long-term implications. For protein solutions to remain stable and have a longer shelf life, excipients may need to be added, depending on how the protein is used in the experiment and other factors. When it comes to the chemical and physical degradation of proteins, the solution environment plays a crucial role in protein formulations. Of particular concern are buffer types, pH, and antioxidants [7]. Even though antioxidants assist in stability and solubility in liquid solutions, which help to preserve protein structure and function, they are frequently considered inactive ingredients in pharmaceutical compositions [8] [9].

Since an unstable protein solution can impact the product’s appearance, potency, purity, healing effects, and cell proliferation, in vitro protein stabilization is an essential practical consideration for the development of an effective EGF formulation. The stability of EGF in solution has been well documented in several in vivo solutions [10]. Though there have been numerous reports on EGF stability, none have specifically addressed treatment in cell culture conditions. Since it has a big influence on several aspects of the parenteral formulation creation process and EGF-based cell proliferation, the study of EGF stability in cell culture medium has gotten little attention. But since many of these in vitro tests are conducted in non-physiological settings, such as organic solvents or acidic solutions [11], they frequently fail to yield qualitatively positive results in cellular therapies.

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Rutgers researchers found that increased brown fat improves longevity and exercise capacity in mice. They aim to develop a drug that replicates these benefits in humans.

Rutgers Health researchers have made discoveries about brown fat that could pave the way for helping people stay physically fit as they age.

A team from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School found that mice lacking a specific gene developed an unusually potent form of brown fat tissue, which extended lifespan and increased exercise capacity by approximately 30%. The team is now working on a drug that could replicate these effects in humans.

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When light interacts with metallic nanostructures, it instantaneously generates plasmonic hot carriers, which serve as key intermediates for converting optical energy into high-value energy sources such as electricity and chemical energy. Among these, hot holes play a crucial role in enhancing photoelectrochemical reactions. However, they thermally dissipate within picoseconds (trillionths of a second), making practical applications challenging.

Now, a Korean research team has successfully developed a method for sustaining hot holes longer and amplifying their flow, accelerating the commercialization of next-generation, high-efficiency, light-to-energy conversion technologies.

The research team, led by Distinguished Professor Jeong Young Park from the Department of Chemistry at KAIST, in collaboration with Professor Moonsang Lee from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Inha University, has successfully amplified the flow of hot holes and mapped local current distribution in real time, thereby elucidating the mechanism of photocurrent enhancement. The work is published in Science Advances.

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From a very young age, we’re socialized to view the world as being made up of “goodies” and “baddies.” When you’re a child fooling around with your friends in the playground, nobody ever wants to be the baddy. And when it comes to dressing up, everybody wants to be Luke Skywalker—not Darth Vader.

This oversimplified way of viewing the world as being made up of right and wrong or good people and bad people doesn’t dissipate as we grow older. If anything, it tends to solidify as we form the that define who we are in adult life.

This is particularly the case when it comes to our political identities and, specifically, the partisan identities and loyalties that individuals attach themselves to.

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