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Modeling shows how genetic changes that don’t lead to changes in protein sequence can still alter protein function.

New modeling shows how synonymous mutations — those that change the DNA

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule composed of two long strands of nucleotides that coil around each other to form a double helix. It is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms that carries genetic instructions for development, functioning, growth, and reproduction. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).

The sick child’s prognosis, who had not responded to conventional treatment, was bleak. Nevertheless, a group of doctors from Rutgers University thought there could be hope despite the conventional wisdom against pursuing any further treatment.

What transpired over the following several weeks in the fall of 2020, described in a case study recently published in the European Medical Journal, was notable and representative of a newer approach to effectively treating a strange disease, the doctors stated.

The study focuses on the medical case of a 5-year-old girl who suffered from anti-NMDAR (N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor) encephalopathy, a rare and difficult-to-diagnose malfunction of the brain. Unresponsive to treatments, the child had been transferred to a rehabilitation center and been in a catatonic state for three months when a team of Rutgers physicians were called in to help.

BioAge Labs, a clinical-stage biotech developing therapeutics that target the molecular causes of aging to extend healthy human lifespan, today announced positive Phase 1b clinical data for BGE-105, a highly selective, potent, orally available small-molecule agonist of the apelin receptor APJ.

BGE-105 treatment resulted in statistically significant prevention of muscle atrophy relative to placebo in healthy volunteers aged 65 or older after 10 days of strict bed rest.

Longevity. Technology: Muscle atrophy – loss of muscle mass and strength – is a universal feature of human aging that increases the risk of multiple morbidities, shortens lifespan and diminishes quality of life. Hospitalisation and periods of forced inactivity greatly accelerate this loss in older people.

Spermidine is a popular longevity supplement – and with good reason, as it has antiaging properties and can suppress inflammation and oxidation. Studies have shown the interestingly-named polyamine can increase lifespan in animal models, and research indicates that its decline with aging is linked to the onset of age-related diseases.

Longevity. Technology: All this background is useful if you are wondering if supplements are right for you and if so, which ones to take. However, having a professional perspective is always useful, and founder of Impact Health Dr Halland Chen MD is a Double Board-Certified doctor who is a Partnered Practitioner of spermidineLIFE. We caught up with Dr Chen to find out what it is like practising at the cutting edge of longevity medicine, and what are some of the most promising interventions he recommends to his patients.

I did a lot of things in the sports realm and I became very involved in regenerative medicine – which naturally leads to longevity. A large part of what I wanted to focus on was not just treating a symptom, but getting to the root cause. Longevity is more than antiaging and wellness – it’s about helping people heal. Nowadays, there is more we can do – it’s very much functional medicine; functional longevity, wellness… we’re focused on that.

AI robots fly, sing, dance, carry cars and respond to Elon Musk. Incredible new robots join Ameca and Boston Dynamics.

To learn more about AI, please visit https://brilliant.org/digitalengine where you’ll also find loads of fun courses on maths, science and computer science.

Here’s the first video on our new channel, Go Rogue:
https://youtu.be/k07unSpmBSg.

Thanks to Brilliant for sponsoring this video.

For the first cell to develop into an entire organism, genes, RNA molecules and proteins have to work together in a complex way. At first, this process is indirectly controlled by the mother. At a certain point in time, the protein GRIF-1 ensures that the offspring cut themselves off from this influence and start their own course of development. A research team from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) details how this process works in the journal Science Advances.

When a new organism starts to develop, the mother calls the shots. During fertilization, the and sperm fuse to form a single new cell. However, the course of , and thus how a new living being forms, is initially determined by the .

“Regardless of the organism, cell division is initially pre-programmed by the mother,” explains geneticist Professor Christian Eckmann from MLU. The mother’s cell provides a developmental starter set that includes the first proteins as well as the RNA molecules that serve as blueprints for further proteins. All this is necessary to jump start cell division and an organism’s development.

A team of researchers from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the Veterans Administration in the U.S. has conducted a genome-wide association study looking into genetic overlap between 12 common psychiatric disorders. The group describes profiling pleiotropic genetic incidences to 12 common psychiatric disorders in their paper published in the journal Nature Genetics.

Many years ago, psychiatrists and other preferred to think of psychiatric conditions as separate diseases, unrelated to one another. More recently, genetics findings involved in psychiatric disorders have suggested that not only are some of them related, but some have overlap, which suggests that illnesses such as might have multiple forms, giving rise to a spectrum of diseases.

In this new effort, the research team conducted a cross-examination of 12 , looking specifically for genetic overlap. Their work involved conducting a cross-trait meta-analysis to study the impact of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), genes in general, cells, pathways and tissue types that might be shared by the 12 disorders ADHD, alcoholism, anorexia, anxiety disorder, autism, bipolarism, depression, OCD, PTSD, schizophrenia and Tourette syndrome.