August is over, and with it, our annual Ending Age-Related Diseases conference! EARD2021 was a great success, and we would like to thank our attendees and sponsors for their support. We will be releasing videos from this event over the coming months, so stay tuned.
LEAF News
EARD2021
Geroscience and Gilgamesh’s Quest: As the introduction to our fourth annual Ending Age-Related Diseases conference, Lifespan.io president Keith Comito discusses the epic of Gilgamesh and how it relates to our modern quest of curing the diseases of aging.
Lifespan News
Is Niacin a Parkinson’s Disease Treatment?: Brent Nally discusses niacin supplementation and how this vitamin affects metabolic pathways related to aging and could benefit sufferers of Parkinson’s disease.
An Ageless Economy: We discuss what would happen to our economy if we were to slow or halt aging in various ways, highlighting the difference between lifespan and healthspan.
Fatty Acids and Longevity: We report on a paper that describes how four fatty acids are correlated with increased or decreased longevity – and with each other.
CRISPR for Immune System Invisibility: We discuss CRISPR-engineered stem cells that do not evoke an immune response, which makes them ideal for therapeutic purposes.
Deadly Hot Dogs: It’s all over the news that eating a hot dog takes 36 minutes away from your life, and we give more context to a new study showing how much lifespan certain foods add or subtract.
What Is NAD+?: This episode is on a very popular topic in the life extension world: the coenzyme NAD+ and its precursors, such as the commonly taken supplement NMN.
Science to Save the World
Designer Babies: This episode is about the much-discussed idea of genetically engineering human beings through CRISPR before they are born.
Rejuvenation Roundup Podcast
Ryan O’Shea of Future Grind hosts this month’s podcast, showcasing the events and research discussed here.
Advocacy and Analysis
The Facts and Fiction of the Movie Old: Elena Milova breaks down M. Night Shymalan’s recent movie, which features supernaturally rapid aging.
Education
Berberine: Derived from barberries, berberine is a popular supplement in the life extension community that is often touted as being similar to metformin.
Spermidine: Found in grapefruit, spermidine is one of the more interesting polyamines. Some research suggests that spermidine may slow down aging and promote healthy longevity.
Quercetin: Found in many fruits and vegetables, quercetin may have some potential in the context of aging. We take a look at this natural compound and popular dietary supplement.
Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide: NAD is a is a key coenzyme found in all living cells. It is a dinucleotide, which means that it consists of two nucleotides joined through their phosphate groups.
Resveratrol: Probably best known for its presence in grapes and wine and being popularly associated with longevity, this popular dietary supplement may have a few tricks up its sleeve.
Research Roundup
Gene Found to Restore Egg Cell Function in Mice: A study conducted at the Institute of Reproductive Medicine in South Korea has shown that the protein expressed by growth-associated gene 6 (GAS6) ameliorates age-related decline in egg cells (oocytes).
The Links Between Sleep Deprivation and Aging: A team of Russian researchers has shown what happens to the cognitive capabilities and brain structures of young and old sleep-deprived mice. Sleep-deprived mice act somewhat like sleep-deprived people.
Cognition Has Improved in Older Adults Between 2004 and 2013: New research shows society-wide improvements in cognition for older adults, but it also highlights a need to specifically target age-related cognitive decline.
The Aging Microbiome Impacts Immune Function in the Brain: A recent review discusses how microbiome changes can have far-reaching effects, even in the brain, despite its protection by the blood-brain barrier.
Computer Modeling Rapamycin Derivatives for Treating Stroke: Chinese researchers have described how they used computer modeling in order to create a new rapalog that is designed to reduce the long-term impact of stroke.
Young ECM Expression in Predicting Longevity Drug Discovery: Using multiple databases, researchers have turned up potential new therapeutics to target the aging extracellular matrix (ECM).
A New Clock Tracks Inflammatory Aging: The researchers built their clock using data from the Stanford 1000 Immunomes project, a longitudinal study of aging and vaccination that collected blood samples between 2007 and 2016 from 1,001 participants aged 8 to 96.
Senescent Cells and the Cytokine Storm: Research shows how senescent cells overreact to inflammatory stimuli, causing them to excessively excrete compounds that promote inflammation.
Stem Cell Helper Heat Shock Protein Identified: Researchers have identified a protein that helps hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) both in ex vivo cultures and in aging tissues.
The Hedgehog Protein Reduces Microglial Inflammation in Mice: Researchers have discovered that a protein called hedgehog alleviates the tissue-specific, age-related inflammation of the microglia, the maintenance cells of the brain.
Stress, Sensory Gating, and Cognitive Decline With Age: Researchers have found that stresses, both biological and in daily life, harm sensory gating, which is a fundamental part of our ability to correctly process what’s going on around us.
Working the Deletion Problem out of CRISPR: In a study published in Genome Biology, researchers explain how they are working to make CRISPR less prone to large, accidental deletions of genetic material.
Collagen, Senescence, and Age-Related Hair Loss: A study has reported similar mechanisms of TGF-ß2 and collagen on hair follicle aging, dermal papilla cell senescence, and in vitro spheroid formation.
Early Antibiotic Exposure Can Decrease Lifespan in Mice: Early-life exposure to antibiotics that destroy the gut flora can harm the lifelong development of mice, including lifespan.
Yamanaka Factors and Making Old Cells Young: We chronicle the progress of partial cellular reprogramming and discuss how this powerful treatment may be able to reprogram cells back into a youthful state.
The Road Between Inflammation and Heart Aging: This paper outlines the cellular link between age-related inflammation and the physical aging of heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes); the inflammasome NLRP3 is critical in this process.
Neuroprotective Effect of Trans-Resveratrol in Mild to Moderate Alzheimer’s Disease: Trans-resveratrol has potential neuroprotective roles in the treatment of moderate to mild AD, and its mechanism may involve a reduction in the accumulation and toxicity of Aß in the brain of patients.
Effect of Dietary Pyrroloquinoline Quinone Disodium Salt on Cognitive Function in Healthy Volunteers: This study shows that supplementation of PQQ disodium salt is useful in improving memory, attention, judgment, and cognitive function in middle-aged to elderly people.
Oral Supplementation with Hydrolyzed Fish Cartilage Improves the Morphological and Structural Characteristics of the Skin: A significant reduction in wrinkles and an increase of dermis echogenicity were observed after a 90-day period of treatment.
Association Between Dietary Melatonin Intake and Total and Cause-Specific Mortality in Japanese Adults: The researchers estimated habitual dietary melatonin intake and examined its association with total and cause-specific mortality in a population-based cohort study in Japan. The data suggest a potential benefit of dietary melatonin with regard to mortality rates.
Epigenetic age is associated with baseline and 3-year change in frailty: Both the GrimAge and Hannum clocks showed a measurable relationship with this physical problem.
Sex- and age-dependent outcomes of 9-hour time-restricted feeding of a Western high-fat high-sucrose diet in C57BL/6J mice: While it does not prevent weight gain in female mice, time-restricted feeding was shown to protects against multiple conditions in both sexes.
A stem-cell basis for skeletal ageing: This study shows how aging hobbles the ability of skeletal stem cells to maintain a healthy balance between driving bone formation and bone destruction.
Telomerase therapy reverses vascular senescence and extends lifespan in progeric mice: The researchers conclude that vascular rejuvenation using telomerase mRNA is a promising approach for progeria and other age-related diseases.
Young and Undamaged rMSA Improves the Healthspan and Lifespan of Mice: With an eye towards the problems associated with aging human serum albumin, the researchers showed that fresh recombinant mouse serum albumin is beneficial for mice.
Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells derived from juvenile macaques reversed ovarian ageing in elderly macaques: These cells increased ovarian volume, aided sex hormones in regulation, strengthened blood vessels, and helped in many other ways.
Treatment with the BCL-2/BCL-xL inhibitor senolytic drug ABT263/Navitoclax improves functional hyperemia in aged mice: This treatment improved both learning and memory in older animals by improving neurovascular coupling, which is the fine control of blood flow in the brain.
Local delivery of a senolytic drug in ischemia and reperfusion-injured heart attenuates cardiac remodeling and restores impaired cardiac function: ABT263-PLGA reduces inflammation and destroys senescent cells without causing systemic toxicity.
News Nuggets
Humanity Launches an App to Help You Slow Down Aging: Humanity has launched a longevity app in the UK that could help you stay healthier for longer and potentially achieve longevity. The HUMANITY app has been launched on the iPhone, and it is due to get an Android version in the near future.
Longeveron Takes Aim at Aging with Cell Therapy: Longeveron has just announced the first data from its Phase 2b clinical trial that targets frailty with Lomecel-B, an MSC-based cell therapy.
A New Generation of Epigenetic Aging Clock: Hannah Went of TruDiagnostic explains her company’s new epigenetic aging clock, DunedinPACE, and how it uses data gleaned from the Dunedin cohort to determine biological age.
Coming up in September
Virtual Conference on Big Data, AI, and Healthy Longevity: On September 9, HEALES is hosting a conference in order to discuss the use of anonymized health data for research purposes.
The Longevity Investors Conference: The second investors-only conference focusing on longevity will take place on September 27. This conference targets the global investor community in order to bring private and institutional investors together.