bims-agimec Biomed News
on Aging mechanisms
Issue of 2024–12–15
seven papers selected by
Metin Sökmen, Ankara Üniversitesi



  1. Front Aging. 2024 ;5 1495029
      Longevity medicine is an emerging and iterative healthcare discipline focusing on early detection, preventive measures, and personalized approaches that aim to extend healthy lifespan and promote healthy aging. This comprehensive review introduces the innovative concept of the "Longevity Pyramid." This conceptual framework delineates progressive intervention levels, providing a structured approach to understanding the diverse strategies available in longevity medicine. At the base of the Longevity Pyramid lies the level of prevention, emphasizing early detection strategies and advanced diagnostics or timely identification of potential health issues. Moving upwards, the next step involves lifestyle modifications, health-promoting behaviors, and proactive measures to delay the onset of age-related conditions. The Longevity Pyramid further explores the vast range of personalized interventions, highlighting the importance of tailoring medical approaches based on genetic predispositions, lifestyle factors, and unique health profiles, thereby optimizing interventions for maximal efficacy. These interventions aim to extend lifespan and reduce the impact and severity of age-related conditions, ensuring that additional years are characterized by vitality and wellbeing. By outlining these progressive levels of intervention, this review offers valuable insights into the evolving field of longevity medicine. This structured framework guides researchers and practitioners toward a nuanced strategic approach to advancing the science and practice of healthy aging.
    Keywords:  aging; healthcare; lifestyle; longevity; personalized medicine; preventive medicine
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fragi.2024.1495029
  2. Ageing Res Rev. 2024 Dec 04. pii: S1568-1637(24)00434-3. [Epub ahead of print] 102616
      Since the first description of a set of characteristics of aging as so-called hallmarks or pillars in 2013/2014, these characteristics have served as guideposts for the research in aging biology. They have been examined in a range of contexts, across tissues, in response to disease conditions or environmental factors, and served as a benchmark for various anti-aging interventions. While the hallmarks of aging were intended to capture generalizable characteristics of aging, they are derived mostly from studies of rodents and humans. Comparative studies of aging including species from across the animal tree of life have great promise to reveal new insights into the mechanistic foundations of aging, as there is a great diversity in lifespan and age-associated physiological changes. However, it is unclear how well the defined hallmarks of aging apply across diverse species. Here, we review each of the twelve hallmarks of aging defined by Lopez-Otin in 2023 with respect to the availability of data from diverse species. We evaluate the current methods used to assess these hallmarks for their potential to be adapted for comparative studies. Not unexpectedly, we find that the data supporting the described hallmarks of aging are restricted mostly to humans and a few model systems and that no data are available for many animal clades. Similarly, not all hallmarks can be easily assessed in diverse species. However, for at least half of the hallmarks, there are methods available today that can be employed to fill this gap in knowledge, suggesting that these studies can be prioritized while methods are developed for comparative study of the remaining hallmarks.
    Keywords:  Aging; biomarkers; comparative biology; hallmarks of aging
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2024.102616
  3. Seizure. 2024 Nov 30. pii: S1059-1311(24)00333-9. [Epub ahead of print]
      MRI has considerably increased our pathophysiological knowledge of age-related brain abnormalities. Brain abnormalities regularly seen on MRI of older adults are atrophy, and changes related to small vessel disease (SVD). SVD-related changes include white matter hyperintensities (WMH), lacunes, microbleeds, microinfarcts and perivascular spaces. While atrophy, WMH and lacunes are recognized as important contributors to cognitive decline and dementia, relationships are less clear for microbleeds, microinfarcts and perivascular spaces. Vascular risk factors are considered critical in the development of these changes and being potentially modifiable have become increasingly interesting to researchers and clinicians alike. Managing vascular risk early, particularly hypertension, is a key factor in slowing down the evolution of age-related brain abnormalities and decelerate their detrimental cognitive consequences. Cognition and visible brain abnormalities have a complex relationship, which reaches far beyond what we can understand using standard MRI. Remote effects of lesions and associated- as well as independent network changes likely explain much of the different cognitive trajectories observed with aging. Because of the versatility of MRI in the diagnostic of various diseases, including epilepsy, incident signs of brain aging will be encountered ever more frequently on standard MRI of older adults. To facilitate understanding and ultimately reporting these changes to patients, this review will give a brief overview of MRI findings encountered on MRI of older people. We will discuss their pathology, risk factors, and relationships with cognition. Special emphasis will be given to more recent developments, including remote effects of lesions, and effects on the structural brain network. Relationships between MRI findings in older people and epilepsy will be discussed as well.
    Keywords:  Aging; Alzheimer's; Brain network; Cognition; Epilepsy; Magnetic resonance imaging; Small vessel disease
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2024.11.015
  4. Clin Transl Sci. 2024 Dec;17(12): e70062
      Chronological age has been the standard for quantifying the aging process. While it is simple to quantify it cannot fully discern the biological variability of aging between individuals. The growing body of interest in this variability of human aging has led to the introduction of new biomarkers to operationalize biological age. The inclusion of body composition may provide additional value to biological aging as a prediction and estimation factor of individual health outcomes. Diagnostic images based on radiomic techniques such as Computed Tomography contain an untapped wealth of patient-specific data that remain inaccessible to healthcare providers. These images are beneficial for collecting information from body composition that adds precision and granularity when compared to traditional measures. This information can subsequently be aggregated to construct models for changes in the human body associated with aging. In addition, aging leads to a natural decline in the best parameter of drug dosing in older adults, glomerular filtration rate. Since the conventional models of kidney function are correlated with age and body composition, the radiomic biomarkers representing age-related changes in body composition may also serve as potential new imaging biomarkers of kidney function for personalized dosing. Our review introduces potential radiomic biomarkers as measures of body composition change targeting the aging processes. As a functional example, we have hypothesized an age-related model of radiomics as a covariate of kidney function to improve personalized dosing. Future research focusing on evaluating this hypothesis in human subject studies is acknowledged.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/cts.70062
  5. Dev Dyn. 2024 Dec 09.
      The rising incidence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the associated economic impacts has prompted a global focus in the field. In recent years, there has been a growing understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms of AD, including the aggregation of β-amyloid, hyperphosphorylated tau, and neuroinflammation. These processes collectively lead to neurodegeneration and cognitive decline, which ultimately results in the loss of autonomy in patients. Currently, there are three main types of AD treatments: clinical tools, pharmacological treatment, and material interventions. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of the underlying etiology and pathogenesis of AD, as well as an overview of the current prevalence of AD treatments. We believe this article can help deepen our understanding of the AD mechanism, and facilitate the clinical translation of scientific research or therapies, to address this global problem of AD.
    Keywords:  Alzheimer's disease; clinical treatment; neurodegenerative disease; pathogenesis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1002/dvdy.762
  6. Mech Ageing Dev. 2024 Dec 10. pii: S0047-6374(24)00120-9. [Epub ahead of print] 112020
      Sarcopenia, a common condition observed in the elderly, presenting a significant public health challenge due to its high prevalence, insidious onset and diverse systemic effects. Despite ongoing research, the precise etiology of sarcopenia remains elusive. Aging-related processes, which included inflammation, oxidative stress, compromised mitochondrial function and apoptosis, have been implicated in its development. Notably, effective pharmacological treatments for sarcopenia are currently lacking, highlighting the necessity for a deeper understanding of its pathogenesis and causative factors to enable proactive interventions. This article is aimed to provide an extensive overview of the pathogenesis of sarcopenia, along with a summary of current treatment and prevention strategies.
    Keywords:  Epigenetic; Muscle Mass; Myokine; Oxidative Stress; Sarcopenia
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mad.2024.112020
  7. Cell Metab. 2024 Dec 05. pii: S1550-4131(24)00453-4. [Epub ahead of print]
      Chronological age is a crucial risk factor for diseases and disabilities among older adults. However, individuals of the same chronological age often exhibit divergent biological aging states, resulting in distinct individual risk profiles. Chronological age estimators based on omics data and machine learning techniques, known as aging clocks, provide a valuable framework for interpreting molecular-level biological aging. Metabolomics is an intriguing and rapidly growing field of study, involving the comprehensive profiling of small molecules within the body and providing the ultimate genome-environment interaction readout. Consequently, leveraging metabolomics to characterize biological aging holds immense potential. The aim of this review was to provide an overview of metabolomics approaches, highlighting the establishment and interpretation of metabolomic aging clocks while emphasizing their strengths, limitations, and applications, and to discuss their underlying biological significance, which has the potential to drive innovation in longevity research and development.
    Keywords:  aging clocks; biological age; chronological age; metabolomics
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2024.11.007