106 posts · 62,163 views
Reports from the front line in the fight against aging. The science of healthy life extension. Activism and advocacy for longer, healthier lives.
Reason
106 posts
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- May 13, 2009
- 10:11 PM
- 931 views
Exercise, Reactive Oxygen Species, and Antioxidants
by Reason in Fight Aging!
I was slowly planning to write something about a recent study that shows antioxidant supplements blocking (one part of) the mechanism by which exercise produces (some of its) health benefits. Here I am instead reaping the benefits of procrastination. If you leave a blog post percolating for long enough, someone else will do part of your job for you: So, what actually causes [the beneficial effects of exercise on metabolism]? There has to be a signal (or set of signals) down at the molecular leve........ Read more »
Ristow, M., Zarse, K., Oberbach, A., Kloting, N., Birringer, M., Kiehntopf, M., Stumvoll, M., Kahn, C., & Bluher, M. (2009) Antioxidants prevent health-promoting effects of physical exercise in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0903485106
- May 19, 2009
- 09:39 PM
- 872 views
Exercise Versus Mitochondrial DNA Damage
by Reason in Fight Aging!
As you probably know by now, the well-supported mitochondrial free radical theory of aging tells us that damage to the DNA in mitochondria, the power plants of our cells, is an important root cause of aging. You can look back in the archives for an explanation as to exactly why that is the case. There's every reason to expect that methods to repair or otherwise negate mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) damage will produce great benefits, and a reversal of one contribution to the aging process. A number o........ Read more »
Tarnopolsky, M. (2009) Mitochondrial DNA shifting in older adults following resistance exercise training. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 34(3), 348-354. DOI: 10.1139/H09-022
- May 21, 2009
- 08:45 PM
- 849 views
Autophagy and Cellular Senescence
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Autophagy is the process by which cells break down unwanted biochemicals and damaged components. More autophagy taking place in your cells appears to be all upside based on what we see happening under the hood during calorie restriction, and based on the use of other fairly crude methods of boosting autophagy. It looks very much like increased autophagy increases longevity and improves long term health. Cellular senescence on the other hand is a mixed bag; a mechanism that does bad things to you........ Read more »
Young, A., Narita, M., Ferreira, M., Kirschner, K., Sadaie, M., Darot, J., Tavare, S., Arakawa, S., Shimizu, S., Watt, F.... (2009) Autophagy mediates the mitotic senescence transition. Genes , 23(7), 798-803. DOI: 10.1101/gad.519709
- August 17, 2009
- 07:17 PM
- 790 views
The AGE-Breaker TRC4186 From Torrent Pharmaceuticals
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Back in late 2006, a lifetime ago in Internet Time, I briefly mentioned the efforts of Torrent Pharmaceuticals. They are one of the few groups doing any sort of serious work on AGE-breakers, compounds aimed at breaking down the advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) that build up with age and cause all sorts of havoc in our biochemistry. One of the ways in which normal metabolic processes degrade important components in your body (such as kidneys, heart, skin and blood vessels) is through the gen........ Read more »
Joshi, D., Gupta, R., Dubey, A., Shiwalkar, A., Pathak, P., Gupta, R., Chauthaiwale, V., & Dutt, C. (2009) TRC4186, a Novel AGE-breaker, Improves Diabetic Cardiomyopathy and Nephropathy in Ob-ZSF1 Model of Type 2 Diabetes. Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology, 54(1), 72-81. DOI: 10.1097/FJC.0b013e3181ac3a34
- June 15, 2009
- 11:03 PM
- 781 views
Failing Memory and the Failing Immune System: Reversible?
by Reason in Fight Aging!
You might recall a Rejuvenation Research paper from last year that put forward evidence to suggest that some age-related mental deterioration stems from a declining immune system. Aging is often associated with a decline in hippocampus-dependent spatial memory. Here, we show that functional cell-mediated immunity is required for the maintenance of hippocampus-dependent spatial memory. As you probably know by now, our immune systems have not evolved for perpetual use. Their very structure and fun........ Read more »
Ron-Harel, N., & Schwartz, M. (2009) Immune senescence and brain aging: can rejuvenation of immunity reverse memory loss?. Trends in Neurosciences. DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2009.03.003
- July 30, 2009
- 07:28 PM
- 779 views
Too Much Methionine Appears to be Bad For Mammals
by Reason in Fight Aging!
I'm sure you all know by now that restricting the amino acid methionine in the diet provides many of the health and longevity benefits of calorie restriction - in mice, at least. This is only the case for methionine, not any of the other essential amino acids that must be obtained through diet, and the resulting changes in biochemistry are not exactly the same as calorie restriction. This suggests that, for example, the loss of visceral fat associated with calorie restriction also plays an impor........ Read more »
Gomez, J., Caro, P., Sanchez, I., Naudi, A., Jove, M., Portero-Otin, M., Lopez-Torres, M., Pamplona, R., & Barja, G. (2009) Effect of methionine dietary supplementation on mitochondrial oxygen radical generation and oxidative DNA damage in rat liver and heart. Journal of Bioenergetics and Biomembranes. DOI: 10.1007/s10863-009-9229-3
- July 9, 2009
- 10:45 PM
- 772 views
Calorie Restriction Produces the Expected Slowing of Aging in Rhesus Monkeys
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Results from a long-running primate study of calorie restriction (CR) are becoming more definitive as the years pass. Two decades in, the reports continue to be consistent with the many, many other CR studies in animals and humans: eating fewer calories while still obtaining adequate nutrition slows down degenerative aging in primates. Studying aging in monkeys takes patience. Mice and rats only live for a couple of years, while these monkeys can live to 40, and the average life span is 27 years........ Read more »
Colman, R., Anderson, R., Johnson, S., Kastman, E., Kosmatka, K., Beasley, T., Allison, D., Cruzen, C., Simmons, H., Kemnitz, J.... (2009) Caloric Restriction Delays Disease Onset and Mortality in Rhesus Monkeys. Science, 325(5937), 201-204. DOI: 10.1126/science.1173635
- May 18, 2009
- 08:32 PM
- 768 views
Do Broad Commonalities Exist in Cancer?
by Reason in Fight Aging!
This is the age of biotechnology, and many believe that one of the crowning triumphs of the age will be the defeat of cancer. If we're going to greatly extend healthy human longevity, then the defeat of cancer certainly has to be achieved one way or another. I think that the one of the most exciting possibilities in modern cancer research is that a cure for cancer is in fact easy, but we don't yet know how to do it. Let me explain what I mean by "easy." This is an era in which we can order cells........ Read more »
Rebecca J. Critchley-Thorne, Diana L. Simons, Ning Yana, Andrea K. Miyahira, Frederick M. Dirbas, Denise L. Johnson, Susan M. Swetter, Robert W. Carlson, George A. Fisher, Albert Koong.... (2009) Impaired interferon signaling is a common immune defect in human cancer. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0901329106
- June 5, 2009
- 12:25 AM
- 766 views
Accumulating Mitochondrial DNA Damage: More Harm or Less Repair?
by Reason in Fight Aging!
The mitochondrial free radical theory of aging tells us that accumulating damage to the DNA inside the mitochondria in our cells is a prominent cause of age-related degeneration. Mitochondria are powerplants, thousands to a cell swarming to turn food into the fuel chemical ATP, and their DNA, separate from the DNA in the cell's nucleus, is the blueprint for their assembly and operation. You'll find a simplified layman's explanation of the mitochondrial free radical theory of aging back in the Fi........ Read more »
Soerensen, M., Gredilla, R., Müller-Ohldach, M., Werner, A., Bohr, V., Osiewacz, H., & Stevnsner, T. (2009) A potential impact of DNA repair on ageing and lifespan in the ageing model organism Podospora anserina: Decrease in mitochondrial DNA repair activity during ageing. Mechanisms of Ageing and Development. DOI: 10.1016/j.mad.2009.05.003
- June 20, 2009
- 12:14 AM
- 765 views
A Male-Only Longevity Mutation in Mice
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Researchers are uncovering longevity mutations in mice fairly rapidly these days. The cost of genetic engineering is falling, the concept of extending longevity through altering the processes of metabolism is well established, and so much more experimentation is taking place than in past years. Here is another recent example from the open access PLoS ONE, this time with the unusual twist that it seems to work only for male mice: Mutations that cause a reduction in protein kinase A (PKA) activity........ Read more »
Enns, L., Morton, J., Treuting, P., Emond, M., Wolf, N., McKnight, G., Rabinovitch, P., & Ladiges, W. (2009) Disruption of Protein Kinase A in Mice Enhances Healthy Aging. PLoS ONE, 4(6). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005963
- June 24, 2009
- 08:29 PM
- 764 views
Deciphering the Machine By Pulling Out Cogs and Flipping Switches
by Reason in Fight Aging!
I wanted to point out an example of research into the biochemistry of calorie restriction as an example of how scientists progress in their investigations of cellular biology. If the cell is a machine, then the biotechnology revolution has provided scientist-mechanics with wrenches to pull out cogs and screwdrivers to force the settings on inner switches. It has also bequethed a ream of disordered notes from a thousand other mechanics, and from all this sense and understanding has to eventually ........ Read more »
Carrano, A., Liu, Z., Dillin, A., & Hunter, T. (2009) A conserved ubiquitination pathway determines longevity in response to diet restriction. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature08130
- July 1, 2009
- 08:22 PM
- 751 views
Subtleties of Calorie Restriction and Evolution
by Reason in Fight Aging!
My attention was drawn today to a recent open access paper that theorizes on how evolution came to produce the calorie restriction response. Given that calorie restriction notably improves health and longevity, why isn't this beneficial metabolic state switched on all the time? Stresses like dietary restriction or various toxins increase lifespan in taxa as diverse as yeast, Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila and rats, by triggering physiological responses that also tend to delay reproduction. F........ Read more »
Ratcliff, W., Hawthorne, P., Travisano, M., & Denison, R. (2009) When Stress Predicts a Shrinking Gene Pool, Trading Early Reproduction for Longevity Can Increase Fitness, Even with Lower Fecundity. PLoS ONE, 4(6). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0006055
- July 8, 2009
- 10:45 PM
- 737 views
Late-Life Administration of Rapamycin Extends Life in Mice
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Rapamycin is a drug of interest because researchers know that the TOR gene (which stands for Target of Rapamycin, so you can probably guess the order of discovery) is involved the big tangled mess of biochemistry relating to the calorie restriction response. Less food while maintaining adequate nutrition modulates the functions of metabolism in ways that lead to longer lives and slower aging. Unless you've spent the past few years living in a basket, you'll know that this is of considerable inte........ Read more »
Harrison, D., Strong, R., Sharp, Z., Nelson, J., Astle, C., Flurkey, K., Nadon, N., Wilkinson, J., Frenkel, K., Carter, C.... (2009) Rapamycin fed late in life extends lifespan in genetically heterogeneous mice. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature08221
- July 7, 2009
- 10:43 PM
- 735 views
Consumers of Drugs of Abuse
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Unintentional poetry can sometimes be found amidst the drudgery of translating literature from one language to another. Spanish to English gifts us with "consumers of drugs of abuse," which serves as the point of attraction to here consider the relationship between aging and damaging ourselves, both proactively and through neglect. The full PDF is also freely available in both Spanish and English, lined up in parallel. The aging or senescence process that follows maturation is characterized by t........ Read more »
Carvalho F. (2009) How bad is accelerated senescence in consumers of drugs of abuse?. Adicciones, 21(2). DOI: ADICCIONES, 2009 - VOL. 21 NUM. 2 - PAGES. 99-104
- September 2, 2009
- 09:47 PM
- 734 views
Yet Another Reason Not to Be Obese: It Accelerates Immune System Aging
by Reason in Fight Aging!
By now, I would hope, the life science horror stories that turn up here on a regular basis will have convinced you that excess body fat is not good for your long term health and longevity. Some of that is the result of the biochemistry of fat tissue en mass, and some of that is the reaction of your metabolism to the sedentary, high-calorie lifestyle required to gain that fat tissue, but the end result isn't pretty. More fat means a lowered life expectancy and a greater risk of all the common age........ Read more »
Yang H, Youm YH, Vandanmagsar B, Rood J, Kumar KG, Butler AA, & Dixit VD. (2009) Obesity accelerates thymic aging. Blood. PMID: 19721009
- July 21, 2009
- 09:36 PM
- 727 views
Induced Pluripotent Cells Demonstrated to Repair Heart Damage
by Reason in Fight Aging!
The research community is rapidly reproducing the past ten years of stem cell technology demonstrations, using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells this time around. You'll recall that iPS cells are normal cells - usually skin cells - reprogrammed to act as though they are stem cells. The methodology is well within reach of any laboratory previously working on stem cells, and many research groups have dived into the fray since the first publication of the reprogramming method. Rapid progress has........ Read more »
Nelson, T., Martinez-Fernandez, A., Yamada, S., Perez-Terzic, C., Ikeda, Y., & Terzic, A. (2009) Repair of Acute Myocardial Infarction With Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Induced by Human Stemness Factors. Circulation. DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.865154
- June 12, 2009
- 10:50 PM
- 721 views
A New Spanner to Throw Into the Works of Cancer
by Reason in Fight Aging!
The biology of the cell is very, very complex. New important mechanisms and systems of regulation are still being discovered, and many of those already known remain incompletely understood. But every newly discovered system offers the possibility of ways to reign in cancer. Given that cancerous cells are normal cells run wild and mutant, overtaken by errant molecular machinery, we'd like to think that there are simple ways to bring it all crashing down - a single molecule that will be a spanner ........ Read more »
Kota, J., Chivukula, R., O'Donnell, K., Wentzel, E., Montgomery, C., Hwang, H., Chang, T., Vivekanandan, P., Torbenson, M., & Clark, K. (2009) Therapeutic microRNA Delivery Suppresses Tumorigenesis in a Murine Liver Cancer Model. Cell, 137(6), 1005-1017. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2009.04.021
- May 26, 2009
- 10:06 PM
- 720 views
AGEs and RAGE in Alzheimer's Disease
by Reason in Fight Aging!
One of the issues inherent in research of a late stage age-related condition is that a lot of different things are going wrong with the body at the same time. The comparatively few categories of age-related damage have spilled over into hundreds of different types of malfunctions and the further disarray resulting from those malfunctions. By way of an analogy, consider rust in a machine: rust is a simple process, but the way in which the machine eventually breaks down can be a very complicated s........ Read more »
Srikanth, V., Maczurek, A., Phan, T., Steele, M., Westcott, B., Juskiw, D., & Münch, G. (2009) Advanced glycation endproducts and their receptor RAGE in Alzheimer's disease. Neurobiology of Aging. DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2009.04.016
- October 13, 2009
- 11:30 PM
- 718 views
Alternate Day Fasting Continues to Look Promising
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Alternate day fasting, or intermittent fasting in general, is known to produce similar health and longevity benefits to the practice of calorie restriction. Intermittent fasting isn't as well researched as calorie restriction - by which I mean to say the evidence for health benefits is "only" very good rather than overwhelming, as in the case of calorie restriction. It's worth noting that there exist intriguing hints that the underlying biological mechanisms by which these benefits are conferred........ Read more »
Castello L, Froio T, Maina M, Cavallini G, Biasi F, Leonarduzzi G, Donati A, Bergamini E, Poli G, & Chiarpotto E. (2009) Alternate-day fasting protects the rat heart against the age-induced inflammation and fibrosis by inhibiting oxidative damage and NF-kB activation. Free radical biology . PMID: 19818847
- July 24, 2009
- 08:24 PM
- 715 views
Ageless Animals, the Pearl Mussel Edition
by Reason in Fight Aging!
The freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) is a very long-lived beast, though as for many of these species its life span is poorly studied. There are too many bivalves and not enough researchers - remember that we live in a world in which we can't even determine lobster ages with any degree of certainty. Like many bivalves, lobster biochemistry doesn't seem to change with age in any usefully measurable way. You might recall research into the longevity of another bivalve, the arcti........ Read more »
CARLOS FERNÁNDEZ, EDUARDO SAN MIGUEL, & ALMUDENA FERNÁNDEZ-BRIERA. (2009) Superoxide dismutase and catalase: tissue activities and relation with age in the long-lived species Margaritifera margaritifera. Biological Research, 42(1), 56-57. DOI: 19621133
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