Reducing naturally occurring errors in protein synthesis (production) improves both health and lifespan, finds a new study in simple model organisms led by researchers at UCL and MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences.
The novel findings, published in Cell Metabolism, are the first to demonstrate a direct link between fewer protein mistakes and longevity.
Explaining the study, lead author Dr. Ivana Bjedov (UCL Cancer Institute), said: We commonly hear about DNA mutations, which can cause cancer, and are considered one of the underlying causes of ageing.
In contrast to the energy balance model, the carbohydrate-insulin model makes a bold claim: overeating isn’t the main cause of obesity. Instead, the carbohydrate-insulin model lays much of the blame for the current obesity epidemic on modern dietary patterns characterized by excessive consumption of foods with a high glycemic load: in particular, processed, rapidly digestible carbohydrates. These foods cause hormonal responses that fundamentally change our metabolism, driving fat storage, weight gain, and obesity.
Perspective published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition argues the root causes of the obesity epidemic are more related to what we eat rather than how much we eat.
Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that obesity affects more than 40% of American adults, placing them at higher risk for heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer. The USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020 – 2025 further tells us that losing weight “requires adults to reduce the number of calories they get from foods and beverages and increase the amount expended through physical activity.”
This approach to weight management is based on the century-old energy balance model which states that weight gain is caused by consuming more energy than we expend. In today’s world, surrounded by highly palatable, heavily marketed, cheap processed foods, it’s easy for people to eat more calories than they need, an imbalance that is further exacerbated by today’s sedentary lifestyles. By this thinking, overeating, coupled with insufficient physical activity, is driving the obesity epidemic. On the other hand, despite decades of public health messaging exhorting people to eat less and exercise more, rates of obesity and obesity-related diseases have steadily risen.
Citicoline, a drug that is naturally found in the body, is commonly used to treat a number of brain injuries and illnesses. For quite some time, doctors have prescribed it for strokes, vascular dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and general aging of the brain. Patients usually see improvement when taking the drug because the body uses it to create and repair cell membranes and lower the presence of free radicals, as noted in the Clinical Interventions in Aging Journal. (Free radicals, which are unstable molecules, can damage cells in the body and are associated with aging and illness.)
Now, researchers from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine have found evidence that citicoline can also be used to treat glaucoma. Normally, glaucoma is treated by removing fluid buildup in the eye, which creates pressure and wears down the cells in the eye and the nerves connecting to the brain. Though monitoring fluid buildup is important, glaucoma can still worsen after the pressure on the eye has been relieved.
Because the herpesvirus sits in neurons forever, there is speculation it is connected to neurodegenerative diseases. The immune system requires inflammation to constantly fight off the virus, and neurons have some degree of damage because of this continuous immune response, according to Dr. Tibor Valyi-Nagy, professor of pathology, director of neuropathology at UIC and research collaborator on the study.
Summary: Researchers discovered mutations of the OPTN gene resulted in increased herpesvirus 1 growth in the brains of mice, leading to the death of local neurons. This resulted in accelerated neurodegeneration. OPTN deficiency was also associated with impairments in immune response. While these findings are specific to the HSV-1 virus, researchers believe the findings may apply to up to eight herpesvirus infections.
Source: University of Illinois at Chicago
A new study by researchers at University of Illinois Chicago suggests that when the protein optineurin, or OPTN, is present in cells it restricts the spread of HSV-1, the herpes simplex virus type 1.
In a “first of its kind” study, researchers also found a potential direct connection between neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), glaucoma, and the herpesvirus, said Dr. Deepak Shukla, the Marion H. Schenk Esq. Professor in Ophthalmology for Research of the Aging Eye, and vice chair for research at UIC.
Pollution creates particulate matter (tiny floating particles) and aerosols that can be harmful to our health. With missions like the Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA), public health officials can start to map this particulate matter around the world, understand its effect on diseases, and know where the most risk is. In this month’s talk, we’ll chat with the instrument operations systems engineer for MAIA and discuss how vital positions like hers are for mission success and for making sure important data gets back to us on Earth.
Speaker: janelle wellons, instrument operations systems engineer, NASA/JPL
Host: brian white, public services office, NASA/JPL
Co-host: jocelyn argueta, public outreach specialist, NASA/JPL
Britain’s young teens will be vaccinated — but with a single dose.
London: Britain’s chief medical officers have said that vaccinating young teenagers against COVID-19 is justified when their mental health and education are taken into account.
Minors aged between 12 and 15 in England will be offered just a single dose of Pfizer or Moderna beginning next week, with more research ordered into whether a second dose should be given, as is currently administered to those aged 16 and above.
The decision by the CMOs brings the UK partly into line with countries like Australia, the United States, Israel and many European nations including France, which are already offering the jab to minors.
Automation will drag on at the normal pace. 2025 i think will be the key year, where Human Level hands could turn up on the humanoid robots, and an early phase of Human Level AI turns up; if those 2 things happen automation of jobs will really start to move fast.
Ask for a roast beef sandwich at an Arby’s drive-thru east of Los Angeles and you may be talking to Tori — an artificially intelligent voice assistant that will take your order and send it to the line cooks.
“It doesn’t call sick,” says Amir Siddiqi, whose family installed the AI voice at its Arby’s franchise this year in Ontario, California. “It doesn’t get corona. And the reliability of it is great.”
The pandemic didn’t just threaten Americans’ health when it slammed the U.S. in 2020 — it may also have posed a long-term threat to many of their jobs. Faced with worker shortages and higher labor costs, companies are starting to automate service sector jobs that economists once considered safe, assuming that machines couldn’t easily provide the human contact they believed customers would demand.
Israeli scientists are harnessing the “destructive” qualities of allergy-causing cells, as part of a bold attempt to pioneer a new immunotherapy for fighting cancer. A research team from Tel Aviv University has found that eosinophils, white blood cells that induce allergies, significantly reduce the growth of human tumors in vitro, and mouse tumors in the body. Nine days after mice were injected with eosinophils, the overall size of tumors per mouse averaged half that of mice who weren’t injected.
Crypto currency, fast grants, publishing sucess and failures, intellectual property, all good.
Around $26 million in grant funding has just been made available for scientific research that can improve our understanding and control of human aging thanks to the donations of supporters such as Vitalik Buterin. Will this launch solve aging? The grants, known as Impetus Grants, are specifically designed to have immediate impact. Scientists can request up to $500,000, and decisions will be made within three weeks.
Impetus Grants exemplify the increasing crossover between the blockchain and cryptocurrency communities and the longevity community. The founding donor was Juan Benet of Filecoin, and he was joined by Mt. Gox creator and Stellar co-founder Jed McCaleb. Well known longevity founder and cryptocurrency pioneer Vitalik Buterin has also donated around $5 million dollars worth of Ethereum, a cryptocurrency which he helped to create.
Impetus Grants are a project of The Longevity Apprenticeship managed by Martin Borch Jensen, the chief scientific officer of Gordian Biotechnology. Gordian claims to have created the first in vivo therapeutic screening platform to radically improve drug development for complex diseases of aging.
This style of funding was inspired by COVID-19 Fast Grants, which were designed to be “faster sources of emergency science funding during the pandemic.” The first round of those grants were given out within 48 hours, with the review of subsequent applications happening within two weeks.
Researchers from any field can request funding, as long as their work is relevant to the Impetus Grants mission. Smaller requests are favored so that more projects can be supported. The reviewers have expressed an interest in betting on scientists willing to challenge assumptions and develop new tools and methodologies, even if their hypothesis isn’t strongly supported. The plan is for all intellectual property to remain with the researchers or their university.
In an attempt to ensure that knowledge is gained from all studies, a special issue of the peer-reviewed journal GeroScience will publish both positive and negative results.
According to Jensen, “The work we’ll fund is not for the few. It’s medicine aimed at treating multiple diseases at once. It’s enabling healthcare, rather than relying on sickcare, by attacking the drivers of the diseases, pain, and frailty that afflict everyone.”
Anna’s guest at Women’s Radio was Dr Ian C E Hale I’m an Autistic person. It’s an indivisible part of who I am as an individual.
Annas guest at Women’s Radio was Dr Ian C E Hale ‘All things Autism will be aired at 1pm and 1am every day this week. Please see www.womensradiostation.com
Dr Ian C E Hale shared:
To be clear … it’s important to put my book and other work into context by knowing a little of their origins. I’m an Autistic person. It’s an indivisible part of who I am as an individual; it informs, goads and limits every thought and act of my life-but I refuse to let it define me. I’m a sportsman, poet, photographer, medical scientist and more-but first and foremost, a human being, with the same fears, hopes, weaknesses and feelings as everyone else.
