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Researchers at Mayo Clinic have identified the enzyme, called CD38, that is responsible for the decrease in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) during aging, a process that is associated with age-related metabolic decline. Results demonstrated an increase in the presence of CD38 with aging in both mice and humans. The results appear today in Cell Metabolism.

“As we age, we experience a decline in our metabolism and . This increases the incidence of age-related metabolic diseases like obesity, diabetes and others,” says Eduardo Chini, M.D., Ph.D., anesthesiologist and researcher for Mayo Clinic’s Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging and lead author of the study. “Previous studies have shown that levels of NAD decline during the aging process in several organisms. This decrease in NAD appears to be, at least in part, responsible for age-related metabolic decline.”

In this study, at the Center on Aging have shown that CD38, an enzyme that is present in inflammatory cells, is directly involved in the process that mediates the age-related NAD decline. Comparing 3- to 32-month-old mice, researchers found that levels of CD38 increased at least two to three times during chronological aging in all tissues tested, including the liver, fat, spleen and .

Researchers at the Universities of Abuja and Nigeria, in collaboration with the University of Bristol, have detected a potentially human-infective microbe in pet dogs in Nigeria.

Dogs in tropical Africa run the risk of contracting canine trypanosomosis if they are bitten by bloodsucking tsetse flies carrying trypanosomes – microscopic, single-celled organisms found in the bloodstream. In dogs, this disease runs a severe course and is often fatal; “white eyes” or corneal cloudiness is one of the characteristic and obvious signs of the disease.

Sick dogs suspected of trypanosomosis are frequently brought to the University of Nigeria Veterinary Teaching Hospital (UNVTH) in Nsukka, where diagnosis relies on examination of a blood smear under the microscope. While trypanosomes are easily detected by their rapid motion among the blood cells, it is hard to determine the exact species of trypanosome by microscopy alone.

Technology entrepreneurs delight in disrupting established industries, from textiles to healthcare to agriculture.

Changes in automotive manufacturing have been tougher to sell because no matter how many computers are put under the hood, the cars themselves “are still being built on 100-year-old concepts,” Daniel Barel, CEO of Israeli automotive startup REE, tells ISRAEL21c.

REE aims to bring the vehicle’s very design into the 21st century. Gone is the engine in front and the traditional mechanics around steering columns, suspension, transmission and more.

Dr. David Sinclair, a Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, is one of the most well-known researchers in the field of rejuvenation, and his lab is the beneficiary of a successful Lifespan.io campaign.

Today, Dr. Sinclair is releasing his book on Amazon, “Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To”, and on Wednesday, September 18, we will be hosting a webinar with Dr. Sinclair as well. Please contact [email protected] if you would like to join or have any questions regarding this webinar.

At International Perspectives in Geroscience, a conference hosted at Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) on September 4–5, we had the opportunity to interview Dr. Sinclair about his work and his thoughts on the current state of research.

Pet cloning is illegal in many countries but approved in several states including South Korea and the US, where the singer Barbra Streisand announced last year she had cloned her dog. The first significant success in animal cloning was Dolly the sheep, born in Britain in 1996 as the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. In 2005, researchers in South Korea cloned the first dog.


As Chinese spending on pets increases by up to 27% year on year, a Beijing firm has created its first cloned kitten

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