Science is the practice of asking questions about nature and making predictions that can be tested. Science can also serve as a way of life; many things we do can help reduce or delay signs of aging.
Staying physically active, getting enough rest, and eating healthily all help to slow the aging process.
T Cells Can Be Reprogrammed to Fight Age-Related Inflammation
Researchers have developed an innovative solution to restore T cells’ effectiveness as we age by increasing cellular repair and mitigating metabolic stressors, such as cell damage. T cells play an essential role in protecting against cancerous and unwanted cells in our bodies but, over time, become less effective due to accumulation of damage and metabolic stressors – this finding could have significant ramifications for treating diseases such as Alzheimer’s and heart disease.
Gladyshev and his team used genetically engineered mice that specifically overexpress certain genes in T cells of young and old animals to study how aging reprogrammed T cells. To identify molecules capable of turning back the clock and reversing age-associated changes to protein, metabolism, and DNA makeup. After screening numerous mixtures of molecules, Gladyshev’s scientists discovered several combinations of compounds which together provided effective “resets” that reset T cells effectively as well as their related processes such as lowering RNA damage as well as slowing accumulation of age-associated products by metabolism of cells’ metabolism.
Targeting a specific metabolic signaling pathway, scientists were able to enhance T cell function and longevity in older animals by targeting one metabolic pathway. This opens up opportunities for developing strategies to rejuvenate specific T cells without adversely impacting other immune cells populations.
These findings also illuminated the complex interactions between metabolic pathways and cellular senescence. The team developed a reprogramming method currently being tested on human cells including neurons, skin cells, and fibroblasts derived from connective tissue fibroblasts. Their ultimate goal is to develop a drug which will activate and then turn off these genes to reverse aging at a cellular level.
Ever since Ponce de Leon discovered what would become known as the Fountain of Youth, mankind has sought ways to extend life expectancies and prevent neurodegeneration diseases like Alzheimer’s. While most anti-ageing products focus on wrinkles or jawline tightening, few address molecular causes of aging. But that could soon change: scientists may have discovered chemical methods to reprogram cells into younger states using Shinya Yamanaka’s 2006 discovery that certain gene expression can transform adult cells into induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs).
Researchers Discover a Key Protein That Regulates the Transition Between “Young” and “Old” Cell States
Scientists are striving to increase human life expectancy and increase healthy years, through lifestyle interventions like calorie restriction (CR) and gene therapy; there’s even evidence suggesting reversing some effects of aging by treating cells directly.
Scientists are now able to identify specific molecular pathways that can be targeted with chemicals in order to rejuvenate cells of either mice or humans. This approach is more efficient than previous methods that entailed genetically altering an existing cell into stem cells; as it does not require creating new ones.
Scientists conducted tests using six chemical cocktails that, within seven days and without altering cellular identity, restored youthful genome-wide transcript profiles and reversed biological aging of cells. Their team used high-throughput cell-based aging assays that can identify old and senescent cells to test these compounds.
Reversing the senescent phenotype was only part of what these compounds could do; they also reprogrammed cells to display younger-like gene expression patterns and prevented accumulation of senescent cells by encouraging “senolytic” cell suicide processes.
Though these initial experiments only involve mice cells, the team hopes that this method could be applied to study diseases associated with cell aging such as cancers that are caused by senescence and loss of youthful cell traits in humans. They hope that using this approach could develop treatments targeting these causes of cell senescence directly for treatment purposes.
Researchers are now focused on identifying key proteins that regulate epigenetic reprogramming. Already they have discovered that G9a histone methyltransferase is essential for full reprogramming to iPSCs, and blocking it might provide an effective strategy to reverse or even slow aging and delay disease onset.
Researchers plan to test their approach on human eye cells soon, with hopes of not only restoring vision in older people but treating other age-related conditions as well.
Scientists Discover a Way to Reverse Aging at the Cellular Level
Researchers are constantly investigating ways to help people lead longer and healthier lives. Beyond products promising wrinkle reduction or tighter jawlines, scientists are researching how we can slow down or even reverse cellular-level aging processes – an unlikely approach compared to Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth but recent discoveries provide hope that reversing it might indeed become possible in our future.
Scientists from Harvard Medical School and Belmonte Institute have created an innovative way to turn back time in individual cells, potentially helping prevent cardiovascular disease and dementia, rejuvenating organs and tissues over time, as well as rejuvenate organs.
Researchers recently demonstrated in their study that they can reset cells’ epigenetic “clock,” thus undoing any corrupted signals that contribute to aging or other conditions. To conduct their experiment, they took epigenetically “aged” cells from young mice and reprogrammed them using backup copies of their own epigenetic instructions – at which point, these returned to being young cells without signs of aging or damage.
Scientists then placed the reprogrammed cells in an environment simulating that of human brain. After two days, these reprogrammed cells showed signs of having recovered synaptic plasticity (which becomes diminished with age in older mice), less oxidative stress and lower levels of age-related products of metabolism compared with their counterparts in mice that hadn’t undergone this experiment.
The next step for the team was to test whether they could rejuvenate these cells in living animals and humans in vivo (i.e. living), not simply lab experiments. To do this, they tested various mixtures of chemical compounds designed to reset cells without changing their identities or becoming cancerous; with promising results; rejuvenation occurred across optic nerve, liver, kidney and muscle.
This was the first successful chemical approach to rewinding cellular aging clocks in living animals, consistent with the Information Theory of Aging. Knowing where this information resides should hasten research on more effective ways of rejuvenating cells.
Scientists Discover a Way to Reverse Age-Related Diseases
Many individuals suffer from age-related diseases, including cancer, heart disease, dementia and arthritis. While individual treatments may help, addressing their causes would likely yield better results – this is why scientists are investigating ways to reverse aging processes.
Researchers have already made strides toward reversing some signs of cellular aging using Yamanaka’s gene therapy method, in which genes are delivered directly into cells with viruses. Unfortunately, however, these approaches do not work on all cell types – to find one that works across the board, researchers need to first understand what drives cellular aging itself.
Scientists have recently discovered one of the primary factors behind cellular aging is Menin protein degradation. Menin is responsible for neuroinflammation regulation and its loss is associated with age-related symptoms like hypothalamus deterioration, decreasing skin thickness and bone density decline, as well as cognitive deterioration.
Researchers used an innovative technique to introduce Menin back into mice’s hypothalamus and test its effect on physiological aging symptoms. After thirty days, mice demonstrated improved skin and bone mass along with enhanced balance, cognition, and balance abilities associated with increased levels of D-serine in their brains.
These findings indicate that correcting Menin deficiency could be an effective approach to treating age-related diseases; however, more research will need to be conducted in order to see whether it could also be applied to reverse other physiological processes.
Reversing aging could involve altering how DNA is packaged within cells. Scientists at the Salk Institute discovered that genetic mutations associated with Werner syndrome – which leads to early aging and death – lead to the breakdown of tightly packed bundles known as heterochromatin, leading to its degradation and decay. They discovered specific mixtures of molecular compounds which could reset this young state back into older cellular DNA strands; this treatment reversed some symptoms associated with aging in mice.
Team scientists are now exploring how their technology can be used to make the hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), responsible for blood cell production, younger. This goal is particularly crucial, since patients receiving HSCs from older donors tend to die sooner. They have received Validation Project funding in 2022 so as to examine this possibility further.
