Longevity science

Scientists discover how to slow down aging in mice and increase longevity
Blocking a specific protein complex in the hypothalamus and injecting a hormone slow aging and cognitive decline

Their discovery of a specific age-related signaling pathway opens up new strategies for combating diseases of old age and extending lifespan.

 

The first known method to permanently bypass the blood-brain barrier*, using mucosa, or the lining of the nose, has been demonstrated by researchers in the department of Otology and Laryngology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School and the Biomedical Engineering Department of Boston University.

The method opens the door to new treatment options for those with neurodegenerative and CNS disease.

 

 

What if humans were to completely eliminate the process of aging in, say, the next ten or twenty years (probably before the technological singularity)?

 

What would be the worldwide consequences of such a development?

 

Would the elimination of aging, and thereby the elimination of death, ultimately, have good or bad consequences?

 

 

Researchers at A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics in Singapore are developing a prototype wireless device that powers an implanted blood-pressure sensor, eliminating the need to recharge or replace a battery.

The microscale electronic sensor monitors blood flow through artificial blood vessels. Surgeons use these prosthetic grafts to bypass diseased or clogged blood vessels in patients experiencing restricted blood supply, for example.

 

 

University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists have transplanted neural cells derived from stem cells from a monkey’s skin into its brain and watched the cells develop into several types of mature brain cells.

After six months, the cells looked entirely normal, and were only detectable because they initially were tagged with a fluorescent protein.

 

 

For some time geneticists have known that stem cells in zebrafish can replace damaged vision cells.

 

This study showed that cone damage, rather than just rod damage, is possible with these stem cells.

 

The first trial comparing a new dual-hormone “artificial pancreas” with conventional diabetes treatment using an insulin pump has been completed by researchers at IRCM (Institut de Recherches Cliniques) of Montreal, led by endocrinologist Dr. Rémi Rabasa-Lhoret. It showed improved glucose levels and lower risks of hypoglycemia.

 

 

A way to stimulate the brain’s natural defense mechanisms in people with Alzheimer’s disease has been discovered by researchers at Université Laval, CHU de Québec and pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK): a molecule known as MPL (monophosphoryl lipid A) that stimulates the activity of the brain’s immune cells.

The breakthrough opens the door to developing a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and a vaccine to prevent the illness.

 

 

New research in the FASEB Journal by NIH scientists suggests that a small molecule called TFP5 rescues plaques and tangles by blocking an overactive brain signal, thereby restoring memory in mice with Alzheimer’s — without obvious toxic side effects.

 

“We hope that clinical trial studies in AD patients yield an extended and a better quality of life, as observed in mice upon TFP5 treatment,” said Harish C. Pant, Ph.D., a senior researcher involved in the work from the Laboratory of Neurochemistry at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders at Stroke at the National Institutes of Health.

 

 

A new method of growing cardiac tissue is teaching old stem cells new tricks.

The discovery, which transforms aged stem cells into cells that function like much younger ones, may one day enable scientists to grow cardiac patches for damaged or diseased hearts from a patient’s own stem cells — no matter what age the patient — while avoiding the threat of rejection.

Scientists from the Manchester Collaborative Center for Inflammation Research (MCCIR) have discovered why a particular cancer drug is so effective at killing cells. Their findings could be used to aid the design of future cancer treatments.

Professor Daniel Davis and his team used high quality video imaging to investigate why the drug rituximab is so effective at killing cancerous B cells. It is widely used in the treatment of B cell malignancies, such as lymphoma and leukaemia — as well as in autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.

 

 

An advance in micromotor technology is opening the door to broad new medical and industrial uses for these tiny devices, scientists said the national American Chemical Society meeting this week.

 

Akin to the invention of cars that fuel themselves from the pavement or air, rather than gasoline or batteries,

 

Joseph Wang, D.Sc., who leads research on the motors, said that efforts to build minute, self-powered robot devices have evoked memories of the 1966 science fiction film Fantastic Voyage. It featured a miniaturized submarine, which doctors injected into a patient. It then navigated through blood vessels to remove a blood clot in the brain.

 

 

 

Fast, precise, inexpensive cancer-cell testing device (credit: EPFL)

 

Among a significant percentage of patients, the risk of metastasis of cancer is particularly expressed by the presence of an abnormal amount of protein HER2 on the surface of cancer cells.

 

With his 2045 Initiative, Russian Internet mogul Dmitry Itskov is looking for backers for the world’s first immortality research center.

The new venture sells itself: invest in his new research and development interest and the payoff could be immortality, reports Fortune.

 

Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) researchers have engineered an artificial human liver that mimics the natural tissue environment closely.

 

The development makes it possible for companies to predict the toxicity of new drugs earlier, potentially speeding up the drug development process and reducing the cost of manufacturing

 

 

A diagnostic system using DNA powder and gold nanoparticles being developed by scientists at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering could provide rapid point-of-care diagnosis of the world’s leading infectious diseases in the near future.

 

BBME PhD student Kyryl Zagorovsky has developed a rapid diagnostic biosensor that will allow technicians to test for multiple diseases at the same time with one small sample, and with high accuracy and sensitivity. The biosensor relies upon gold nanoparticles, which change color.

 

 

A new 3D printing process using human stem cells could pave the way to custom replacement organs for patients, eliminating the need for organ donation and immune suppression, and solving the problem of transplant rejection.

 

The process, developed at Edinburgh-based Heriot-Watt University, in partnership with Roslin Cellab, could also speed up and improve the process of reliable, animal-free drug testing by growing three-dimensional human tissues and structures for pharmaceuticals to be tested on.

 

 

Scientists at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute have found a possible way to fool the immune system to prevent it from recognizing and destroying nanoparticles before they deliver their drug payloads.

 

“Our goal was to make a particle that is camouflaged within our bodies and escapes the surveillance of the immune system to reach its target undiscovered,” said Department of Medicine Co-Chair Ennio Tasciotti, Ph.D., the study’s principal investigator.

 

 

Northwestern Medicine researchers have developed a nanoparticle that attacks a cancerous lymphoma cell by mimicking HDL.(high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol, an essential nutrient for the cell.

 

The nanoparticle tricks the cell by blocking cholesterol from entering the cell. Deprived of an essential nutrient, the cell eventually dies.

 

 

Repression of a single protein in ordinary fibroblasts (connective tissue) is sufficient to directly convert them into functional neurons, scientists in the U.S. and China have discovered.

 

The findings could have far-reaching implications for the development of new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington’s, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

 

 

Six medical innovations are poised to transform the way we fight disease, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Surgeons at Boston Children’s Hospital have developed a way to help children born with half a heart to essentially grow a whole one — by marshaling the body’s natural capacity to heal and develop.Oxford Nanopore Technologies has unveiled the first of a generation of tiny DNA sequencing...