As rejuvenation research continues to grow and develop, so do we here at Lifespan.io. This month’s Roundup features quite a few interesting studies along with things that we’re doing to make these studies more accessible to the public.
LEAF News
Developing Our Ethics Code of Longevity Journalism: Fact-based journalism is critical to reporting on advances in rejuvenation biotechnology and related topics.
Lifespan.io Announces Promotions and Expansion: Thanks to the support of our dedicated readers and the Lifespan Heroes, our organization continues to grow.
Journal Club
Mitochondria Can Trigger Cellular Senescence: The relevant study shows that an HDAC inhibitor, which is already approved by the FDA, can suppress the damage caused when this happens.
Lifespan News
Solving Gray Hair: This episode’s other topics include the fact that rapamycin isn’t a caloric restriction mimetic while glucosamine may be one, and senolytics have effects on age-related cognitive decline while artificial intelligence is being explored in longevity medicine.
Depression and Brain Aging: Additional topics include stem cell neurons for Parkinson’s disease, the utility of contacting Congress, a database for aging in mice, and Salk scientists receiving $1.2 million to study aging of the brain.
Parasitic Worm Infestation for Longevity: Helminths might be used to fight inflammaging; additionally, Brent discusses the effects of NAD+ on mitochondria and amyloids, senescent cells in the aging retina, Longevity Therapeutics 2021, and our Science to Save the World episode on cooling the planet.
Longevity Therapeutics 2021
We learned a great deal from the multiple presenters at this scientific conference, and there was so much information that we had to break out our experiences into a four-part series: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Rejuvenation Roundup Podcast
Ryan O’Shea of Future Grind hosts this month’s podcast, showcasing the events and research discussed here.
Advocacy Digest
Longevity Pharmacology Comes of Age: Dr. João Pedro de Magalhães explains how pharmaceutical development of longevity-increasing compounds is a growing field.
Replacing Aging With Jean Hébert: Dr. Jean Hébert takes the stance that replacement of tissues and organs, as opposed to pharmacological interventions, will be the future of effective rejuvenation.
Research Roundup
Neurons from Stem Cells Alleviate Parkinson’s Disease in Rats: Researchers have reported on their success in priming stem cells to differentiate into dopaminergic neurons in rat brains.
Parasitic Worm Infestation for Longevity: Helminths, parasitic organisms that live in the intestines, produce natural immunosuppressants that may be actually beneficial for human health.
The Intertwined Nature of NAD+, CD38, and Senescence: Aging is complicated, and multiple hallmarks of aging are shown to affect one another.
Increasing NAD+ Reduces Amyloids and Benefits Mitochondria: Further showing how aging hallmarks affect one another, this study provides evidence that the hallmarks of proteostasis and mitochondrial dysfunction are shown to be positively affected by additional NAD+.
Senescent Cells in the Aging Retina: Senescent cells and their secretions are shown to contribute to age-related macular degeneration.
Male and Female Gut Microbiomes Converge With Age: While the natural microbiomes of men and woman are different, aging causes them to become the same.
Proposing Gerobiotics as a New Gut Microbiome Research Field: This review explains that age-related changes of gut flora represent a distinct field within geroscience, and the authors coin the term ‘gerobiotics’ to describe it.
Measuring Age With a Bloodborne Neural Protein: A study shows that the presence of neurofilament light chain in the bloodstream signifies damage to the nervous system.
Atrophy of the Neuronal Circadian Clock Is a Disease of Aging: Victor Bjoerk presents his paper showing that there is a small population of neurons that governs the circadian clock, and as they age, the circadian rhythm is disrupted.
SIRT3 Replenishment Reverses Lung Fibrosis in Mice: Fibrosis is a balance, but aging puts its thumb on the scale. Mouse research shows that the sirtuin SIRT3 may restore this balance.
Geroprotective effects of Alzheimer’s disease drug candidates: This research shows that the geroprotective AD drug candidates J147 and CMS121 prevent age-associated disease in both brain and kidney
GDF11 alleviates secondary brain injury after intracerebral hemorrhage: This drug suppresses the feedback loop involved in reactive oxygen species and mitochondria, resulting in amelioration of neural damage
The goal of geroscience is life extension: This review examines multiple drugs that have been reported to increase healthspan, but only a few of them increase lifespan.
A Wnt5a-Cdc42 axis controls aging and rejuvenation of hair-follicle stem cells: This paper explains how molecular signaling leads to hair loss in aging and that this signaling can be restored to its youthful state.
Senescent cells and the incidence of age‐related diseases: This research shows that cellular senescence and multiple age-related diseases are closely linked.
Quantum Dot Nanomedicine Dramatically Improves Metformin and Nicotinamide Mononucleotide Effectiveness in Mice: Quantum dot formulations are uptaken through the small intestine and liver differently than normal drugs, and this research shows that they increase the potency of NMN and metformin.
Pathological angiogenesis in retinopathy engages cellular senescence and is amenable to therapeutic elimination via BCL-xL inhibition: This research shows that pathological blood vessels are closely related to cellular senescence.
An integrative study of five biological clocks in somatic and mental health: Many biomarker-based clocks give different and largely unrelated results, suggesting that a multi-clock approach to measuring biological age is better than using one.
Effects of Platelet-Rich Plasma on Cellular Populations of the Central Nervous System: The Influence of Donor Age: As other research has shown, old blood contains deleterious factors not found in young blood, and this research shows its comparative effects.
Cost-free lifespan extension via optimization of gene expression in adulthood aligns with the developmental theory of ageing: This research shows that, at least in C. elegans, genes that are beneficial during developmental stages are harmful in adulthood.
The potential of rapalogs to enhance resilience against SARS-CoV-2 infection and reduce the severity of COVID-19: This paper suggests that clinical trials should be undertaken to determine whether mTORC1 inhibitors are useful against COVID-19 infection.
Healthy life expectancy by frailty state in Europe from 2004 to 2015: findings from SHARE: This study examines the relationship between frailty and life expectancy along with how that relationship has changed over eleven years.
News Nuggets
The NIA Is Funding Clinical Trials Against Aging: The National Institutes of Aging in the United States is sponsoring trials of interventions that directly affect aging.
ChromaDex Announces $25 Million Private Placement of Common Stock: The private placement was led by an international investor, with ChromaDex agreeing to sell 3,846,153 shares of its common stock at a per-share price of $6.50.
Humacyte in Deal to Develop Prosthetic Vasculature: Humacyte, which is developing bioengineered vascular tissue, is entering into a merger with a special purpose acquisitions company in order to raise funds with which to grow.
Digital Health Company Bold Lands $7 Million: Thanks to an injection of seed round cash, a new company, Bold, joins the growing pool of organizations that are focused on wellness and disease prevention.