Association Between Low Muscle Mass and Cognitive Decline

Dementia is a life altering disease and affects millions of people and their families worldwide negatively. But in a new study, researchers have found a modifiable factor that could possibly lower the risk of the advancement of this condition before it becomes irreversible. Their work highlights the link between muscle mass and rapid cognitive decline.

Little has been known about the association between low muscle strength and the development of dementia. For the first time, this new study shows that having low muscle mass is significantly linked to a rapid cognitive decline.

For the study, data was used from an ongoing Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging or CLSA. It has collected a substantial dataset consisting of body composition and various cognitive tests from 30,000 persons over a 3-year period that was administered in person. Three domains were used in the study – executive function, memory and psychomotor speed. The participants were all over 65 years of age and were asked if having low muscle can predict eventual cognitive decline based upon the three domains.

The findings showed that having a low muscle mass did link with a more rapid decline in the domain of executive cognitive functions over a three year period compared with a normal muscle mass. The other domains of memory and psychomotor function loss were not affected. This is important because executive functions, on a daily basis, help a person stay attentive, make decisions and organize thoughts.

This is crucial information because muscle mass can be increased through exercise, especially resistance training. And combined with good nutrition and a sufficient amount of protein in the diet, muscle mass can be maintained over the years of a persons life. Muscles provide proteins that help handle various bodily processes as well as a major role in strength and physical functioning. They also deliver molecules to the brain. When a person exercises and builds muscle mass, more blood flow is delivered to the brain that helps the executive function process.

People can be measured for low muscle mass to help identify if they may have an increased risk of cognitive decline. But further research is needed to see if gaining or maintaining muscle can attenuate cognitive decline as a person ages, and, if so, what the mechanisms would be.

To view the original scientific study click below:
Association of Low Muscle Mass With Cognitive Function During a 3-Year Follow-up Among Adults Aged 65 to 86 Years in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

Best Time To Exercise Different For Men and Women

Exercise is a great way to keep fit and stay healthy but now a new study has determined that the time of day to exercise and get the best results are different for men and women. The research team at Skidmore College performed a study consisting of a 12-week exercise program. The participants were 27 women and 20 men ranging in age from 25-55 years old. Because of this large number, they were split into workout groups in the morning and evening.

The exercises performed were varied, ranging from resistance and endurance training, stretching and high intensity intervals. One workout group performed the exercises for one hour before 8:30 am. The other group performed the same exercises but in the evening between 6-10 pm. All of the participants followed a meal plan that was specially designed for them.

The researchers monitored each participants body fat and blood pressure during the study. Their aerobic power, strength and flexibility were tested at the beginning and end of the study.

All of the participants showed an improvement in their overall health and performance no matter what time period they exercised in. They all got leaner and stronger. But the researchers noted the results showed a difference between the morning and evening exercises. And also a difference between the results of men compared to the women.

The women that exercised in the morning showed a reduction in fat around their belly and their blood pressure improved. The women that exercised in the evening improved upper body muscle strength as well as their mood and food intake.

The time of day for exercising was shown to be less important for men exhibiting an increase in body strength from both morning and evening performance. But there was a significant improvement in heart and metabolic health as well as emotional wellbeing from the evening exercise.

The reason for the differences in mens and womens responses to the time of day exercises are performed are not clear yet. It could be women have more belly fat or maybe the bodies internal rhythms are influencing the outcome. More research will need to be done.

Depending on what a person is trying to achieve with exercise they may want to consider how what the time of day they exercise could benefit the outcome they want to achieve.

To view the original scientific study click below:
Morning Exercise Reduces Abdominal Fat and Blood Pressure in Women; Evening Exercise Increases Muscular Performance in Women and Lowers Blood Pressure in Men

An Avocado A Day Can Help Improve Cholesterol

While it has been known that eating avocados is good for you, there has now been a new study detailing how they can improve unhealthy cholesterol levels. This has been the most extensive and largest study to date on the overall effects of health by consuming avocados including the length of the study period and the large number of participants.

The research team conducted an experiment lasting 6 months which involved more than 1,000 participants who were obese or overweight. Half were asked to consume one avocado each day and the rest continued their typical diet and were told to not eat over 2 avocados per month. At the beginning and the end of the study, fat around the organs and around the abdomen were precisely measured using an MRI.

Although the avocados did not affect weight gain or belly fat, the study does provide evidence that avocadoes can be beneficial to diet quality. This is important due to the fact that it is known that a higher quality of diet is linked with a lower risk of a variety of diseases including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

Eating one avocado per day did not point to scientifically substantial improvements in abdominal fat and other cardiometabolic risk factors or an increase in weight gain, belly fat or waist circumference. This is significant because the calories from eating avocados were shown to not affect abdominal fat or body weight. In addition, total cholesterol decreased 2.9 mg/dl and LDL cholesterol decreased by 2.5 mg/dl.

The study determined that consuming an avocado every day did improve the quality of the participants diets by 8 points on a scale of 100 points.

The team has stated that in the future they plan on continuing analyzing data from the research. As an example, participants were not asked how to eat their avocado every day. A later study might investigate how participants incorporated their avocados into their diet and whether or not it would have any influence on their overall health benefits

To view the original scientific study click below:
Effect of Incorporating 1 Avocado Per Day Versus Habitual Diet on Visceral Adiposity: A Randomized Trial

New Treatment Increased Lifespan by 500% in Nematode Worms

Longevity research has commonly used a nematode worm called caenorhabditis elegans in studies. This is due to its genetic makeup being similar to humans and it has a relative short lifespan, usually 4 weeks or less. Earlier research to improve these worms lifespan resulted in various interesting outcomes by modifying their rapamycin and insulin signaling pathways, which resulted in a 30% and 100% increase in their lifespan, respectively. The researchers then wondered what would happen from modifications made to both of these pathways at the same time.

To find out the answer, international teams of scientists were organized which included researchers from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and Nanjing University. They modified both the rapamycin and insulin pathways to a grouping of C.elegans worms expecting to see a 130% lifespan increase. But, to their surprise the worms lifespan increased by 500%.

So the question now is, could this have an effect on human regenerative medicine? Of course, humans and worms are different, but they do have similar biology. They both possess “conserved” pathways of insulin and rapamycin, which means that in both organisms these have been maintained. In earlier times, both C.elegans and humans have had a common ancestor, such as chimpanzees and humans have. But although evolution has changed humans bodies so much that C.elegans and humans have deviated from eachother, quite a bit of the fundamental biological functions have remained unchanged.

Therefore, if human rapamycin/insulin pathways were modified would it increase human lifespan? Simply put, we just cannot know what would happen yet. But, in other species such as mice, by modifying these pathways it has shown to affect lifespan in a positive way. Therefore, this conveys that the modifications are not only beneficial to just one species. From the knowledge we have, not including our intellectual capacity, the way our bodies function is basically no different than our close relatives in the animal kingdom. Maybe this will be how a human could reach a 400-year long lifespan. We will have to wait and see.

To view the original scientific study click below:
Translational Regulation of Non-autonomous Mitochondrial Stress Response Promotes Longevity

Damaged Stem Cells Restored by Nanoparticle Backpacks

Bioengineers have discovered a new strategy that can restore stem cells that have been damaged and also enable them to grow new tissues again. The novel drug delivery system might help infants who were born from pregnancies that were complicated.

In the umbilical cord of newborns lies potential stem cells that are life saving and can be used to fight diseases like leukemia and lymphoma. This is why a lot of new parents elect to “bank” their babies umbilical cord blood which is rich in stem cells. However, in the 6% to 15% of pregnancies that have been affected by gestational diabetes, parents do lack this option due to the condition which damages the stem cells and renders them useless.

At the heart of the new approach are specifically engineered nanoparticles. At only 150 nanometers in diameter, each spherical nanoparticle has the ability to store medicine and deliver it just to the stem cells themselves by directly attaching onto the surface of the stem cell. Because of their special formulation the particles will slowly release the medicine making it very effective even at doses that are low.

The process has been described like this – each stem cell is like a soldier and is effective and smart. It knows what to do and where to go. However, the soldiers that they are working with are weak and injured. Through providing them with the nanoparticle “backpack” they are giving them what they require to be able to work effectively again.

The primary test for the new stem cell backpack was whether or not they could form new tissues. The researchers tested the stem cells that were damaged without “backpacks” and found that they moved slowly and formed tissues that were imperfect. However, when they applied “backpacks” stem cells that had been previously damaged started to form new blood vessels. This happened both when implanted under the skin of mice in the lab and in synthetic polymers, two environments that are meant to copy the human body conditions.

It may be years before this new technique could reach health care settings, but it has cleared the path of any method that has been developed so far. Methods now that involve injection of the medicine directly into the bloodstream come with a variety of unwanted side effects and risks. However, the new technique used only materials and methods that have already been approved for clinical settings by the FDA.

The team leader attributes the success to a high interdisciplinary group of researchers between mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, medicine and biology.

The team hopes that their approach will be utilized to restore cells that have been damaged by other types of complications of pregnancies such as preeclampsia. Rather than discarding the stem cells, in the future the team hopes clinicians will have the ability to rejuvenate them and utilize them to regenerate the body.

To view the original scientific study click below:
Engineering bioactive nanoparticles to rejuvenate vascular progenitor cells

Stem Cell Discovery Could Aid Scientists In Repairing and Making Organs

By using a mouse model, researchers from the Univ. of Copenhagen have developed an alternative route for cells to follow to build organs. They used this information to attain a stem cell that is new and could possibly generate a supply of organs.

Currently, a stem cell is created by either employing molecules found in pluripotent cells or by placing an embryo in a dish. The process involved reprogramming differentiated cells to create induced pluripotent cells. This new research explores other avenues to make this happen.

The prospect to be able to restore organ tissue that has been damaged is exciting. Researchers are now studying how stem cells create cells of organs like the pancreas, liver, and intestine. In the past, they have tried to copy the process where embryonic cells transform into body parts including organs. Although several attempts have been made it has been very difficult to achieve the lab grown cells to correctly mature. But this new research shows there may be an important step they missed and possibly a different kind of stem cell.

Recently, there have been many studies that have tried to form a gut out of stem cells in a dish. They have now found an innovative way to do this by stem cells following a different path from what happens in an embryo. They discovered a new direction an embryo could take to make organs.

This study primarily focuses on pluripotent stem cells and endoderm extra-embryonic stem cells. A few years ago the team identified a new stem cell line called extra-embryonic stem cells. These stem cells act as key support cells in gastrointestinal organs by supplying membranes and their nourishment and other functions.

By using the alternate path the extra-embryonic stem cells can take, they have the ability to make intestinal organs in the embryo. They then took these stem cells and adapted them into structures that were intestinal organ-like in a dish. From this study, they discovered that when these support cells used this new alternate route, they would actually create organoid structures.

There are certain cells that can potentially be candidates to create organs in the digestive tract, like the pancreas, lung, liver, and intestine. The team were able to label them with a genetic marker. To do this to such a large amount of data required original and new approaches in analyzing the information. Therefore, the team collaborated with physical scientists from the Niels Bohr Institute.

They were able to identify the genes used in the cells. To further aid the work, they developed a computational tool that compared cell clusters. This was used in comparing cells in their dataset and also examine others.

To determine if this new alternate route could create organ cell types they used the extra-embryonic stem cells. They originate at a different place in the embryo then pluripotent stem cells and look like the beginning point for the alternate route for formation of an organ. They were used to develop organ-like structures in the intestines in a dish. They found that both of the routes would work. But using the alternate route could help lab-grown cells from cells that are functional and can study and treat disease.

There is still ongoing research to be done in the details of the function and maturing of these cells. Maybe by using both the traditional route and the alternative route some problems can be solved.

To view the original scientific study click below:
Identification of the central intermediate in the extra-embryonic to embryonic endoderm transition through single-cell transcriptomics

New Technology to Repair Heart Muscle Cells

A team has reported new technology that will not only repair heart muscle cells in mice, but also can regenerate them after a heart attack. The groundbreaking discovery has the possibility to develop into an important clinical strategy to treat humans who have heart disease.

The brand new technology was developed by researchers using the synthetic messenger ribonucleuic Acid (mRNA) to send mutated transcription factors into mouse hearts. These are proteins that execute the conversion of DNA into RNA. This is the first time this has been done to this degree in research and it has the potential to be a treatment for people.

The team used 2 mutated transcription factors – Stemin and YAP5SA. They worked together to boost the reproduction of heart muscle cells that were isolated from the hearts of mice. The experiments were performed in vitro on dishes of tissue culture.

What they were looking to do was dedifferentiate the cadiomyocyte into a stem cell like existence so that they were able to proliferate and regenerate.

Stemin will turn on properties that are stem like from cardiomyocytes. The discovery of Stemin’s most critical role in the experiments by one of the researchers says the transcription factor is a change in the game. YAP5SA works through promoting growth of organs that will cause the myocytes to copy even more.

From a different discovery the researchers determined that Stemin and YAPS5A repair damage to the hearts in the mice in vivo. Myocyte nuclei reproduced, at minimal, 15 fold in the 24 hour period after heart injections delivered the transcription factors.

When they injected the two transcription factors into infarcted adult mice hearts, the outcome was amazing. The lab discovered myocytes multiplied fast within a day’s time, while hearts over the following month were repaired to an almost normal cardiac function of pumping without much scarring.

An additional benefit of utilizing mRNA, is that it will disappear quickly in comparison to viral delivery. When gene therapies are delivered to cells by viral vectors it raises a variety of biosafety concerns due to they cannot be stopped. Delivery by mRNA turns over quickly and then disappears.

The study is huge in heart regeneration because of the smart strategy of using mRNA to deliver Stemin and YAP5SA. The discovery is particularly important due to less than 1% of adult muscle cells are able to regenerate. Almost all people will die with most of the cardiomyocytes from the first month of life. Following a heart attack the muscle cells of the heart die, and the contracting ability of the heart could be lost.

To view the original scientific study click below:
STEMIN and YAP5SA synthetic modified mRNAs regenerate and repair infarcted mouse hearts

Connection Between Eye Health, Diet & Lifespan Uncovered

A team has demonstrated an association between circadian rhythms, health, diet, and lifespan. It was an unexpected discovery that the fly eye actually drives the process of aging.

Earlier studies have shown in people that there is a link between poor health and eye disorders. The study contends that there is more evidence that dysfunction in the eye can prompt problems in a variety of other tissues. They are now demonstrating that not only will fasting enhance eyesight, but also that the eye will actually play a part that can influence lifespan.

This discovery, in the fruit fly, that the eye itself can directly influence lifespan, surprised the team.

They determined the reason for the link is in circadian clocks, the molecular process within each cell of all organisms. This evolution has adapted to stresses such as variations in temperature and light due to the sun’s rising and setting everyday. These oscillations that occur every 24 hours affect complex behaviors of animals such as prey-predator interactions and the wake/sleep cycles. They also fine tune the temporal modulation of molecular processes of protein translation and gene transcription.

The team showed that fruit flies that are on on restrictive diet had notable shifts in their circadian rhythms and also in extending their lifespan.

A fruit flies lifespan is short which makes it a great model that allowed the team to screen for a variety of things at one time. The study started with a broad survey to determine what genes will oscillate in a circadian fashion when the fruit flies on an unrestricted diet were compared to those that were fed just 10% of the protein of the same diet.

They immediately saw many genes that were diet responsive and in addition exhibited vascillations at different points in time or were rhythmic. They also found that the most activated rhythmic genes from the restrictive diet all seemed to be from the eye, primarily from photoreceptors which are the particular neurons in the retina that are light responsive.

A group of experiments were then done. They were designed to determine how function of the eye can affect how a restrictive diet can extend lifespan. One example was an experiment that showed that keeping the fruit flies in continual darkness seemed to extend their lifespan. This seemed strange to the team. They thought that light was essential for circadian rhythm.

They then utilized bioinformatics to ask the question if the genes in the eye, that are also responsive and rhythmic to dietary restriction, can influence lifespan? Their answer was yes!

We think of the eye as essential for vision. It’s not thought of as something that has to protect that whole organism.

Because the eyes are exposed to everything, the immune defenses are crucially active and can lead to inflammation. If this is present for long time periods, it can lead to or worsen many common diseases that can be chronic. Also, light can cause photoreceptor degeneration which can lead to inflammation.

Constantly looking at phone screens and computers and exposure to light pollution into the night are conditions that are very disturbing to circadian clocks. It can mess up eye protection that could lead to consequences besides just vision and can cause damage to the brain and the body.

There is a lot to understand about the eye’s role in the overall lifespan and health of an organism. This includes asking how the eye can influence lifespan and if the identical effect applies to other organisms?

The most important question that has been raised by this study is how it might apply to people and do photoreceptors in mammals influence lifespan? The team believes probably not as much as is does to the fruit fly, observing that most of the energy in a fruit fly is primarily to its eye. However, since photoreceptors are just specialized neurons, the stronger association is how circadian function plays in neurons in general. This is in particular with restrictions in diet, and how those can be accumulated to maintain nueronal function during the aging process.

Once researchers determine how these processes work, they can start to address the molecular clock to delay aging. It may be that people could maintain vision through activating the clocks that are within the eyes possibly through drugs, diet, and lifestyle changes.

To view the original scientific study click below:
Dietary restriction and the transcription factor clock delay eye aging to extend lifespan in Drosophila Melanogaster

Transform Stem Cells By Turning Off One Gene

New research from the Univ. of Virginia could assist scientists in understanding how specific genes affect the bodies development. It could show how they play in diseases that are developmental and could possibly help develop new therapies.

A team was able to alter a stem cells course which made them change from turning into heart cells into brain cells just by disengaging one gene.

Previously, it has been understood that the path a cell takes upon changing into a nerve cell or a heart cell is quite rigid. But now the study shows that the process is actually quite fluid.

The method used was CRISPR genome editing to disconnect the Brm gene in the stem cells of mice that were in the process of canalization into heart cells. The result was that the cells of the mice were missing a particular protein known as Brahma. This challenged basic ideas in regards to the stem cells progression to body cells that are mature and it noted that stem cells can be looked at as a blank slate. This is the first to analyze the impact Brahma’s has on cardiac differentiation.

The scientist who made the computer model used in the study, noted the approach was unconventional. Through using the computational models, they got a better perceptive of the Brahma mechanism that can encourage changes in the fate of the cell or the process of differentiation.

There is more to be studied including what happens afterwards and what is the means that these cells turn into highly mature contractile cells? The team believes that there is a significant challenge in this field as to which implications are therapeutic. There is the need to have the ability to develop cells that are mature for transplantation into humans or to develop new drugs.

To view the original scientific study click below:
Brahma safeguards canalization of cardiac mesoderm differentiation

Gene Regulation Could be The Secret of a Longer Lifespan

A team has investigated genes that could be linked to lifespan and has found specific characteristics of certain genes. They have discovered that there are 2 regulatory systems that control gene expression. They are the pluripotency and circardian networks and are crucial to longevity. This information has important implications in the understanding of the evolution of longevity and also in offering new objectives to combat diseases that are age related.

Mammals age at significantly different rates naturally. One of these is the naked mole rat. The mole rat can live up to 41 years, which is nearly ten times longer than similar sized rodents, such as a mouse.

So what is the reason for the longer lifespan? The new research has discovered an important piece to the answer – it could be in the mechanisms that control expression of genes.

The team compared the expression of gene combinations of 26 species of mammals with different maximum lifespans. A shrew was 2 years and the naked mole rate at 41 years. They revealed genes, by the thousands, that were involved to a species’s maximum lifespan were either negatively or positively related to longevity.

They discovered that the species that were long lived usually have gene expression that was low in metabolism of energy and inflammation. The high expression of genes contributed to the repair of RNA transport, repair of DNA, and cellular skeleton organization. Earlier research had shown that attributes such as more effective repair of DNA and a less weak inflammatory response are attributes of mammals that have a long lifespan.

The short lived species had the opposite reaction with high gene expression involved in inflammation and energy metabolism and low gene expression involved in RNA transport, repair of DNA, and skeleton organization.

When the team analyzed the systems that control expression of these genes, they discovered two major systems that play a role. The negative life span gene, which are involved in inflammation and energy metabolism, are regulated by circadian networks. Their expression is confined to a specific time of day which could help control the overall gene expression in the species that were long lived. This means, some exercise can be controlled over the negative lifespan genes.

To live a longer life, we need to curb exposure to light in the evening and have healthy sleep habits, therefore inhibiting the expression of lifespan genes that can be negative.

Positive lifespan genes that are involved in RNA transport, repair of DNA and skeleton organization, are controlled by what is known as the pluripotency network. It involves reprogramming somatic cells. These are any cells that do not reproduce into embryonic cells which can more easily regenerate and rejuvenate by repackaging DNA that has become disorganized through the aging process.

They team found that the pluripotency network evolution is activated to attain longer lifespan.

The pluripotency network and its relation to positive lifespan genes is an important discovery to understand the evolution of longevity. It can show the path for new anti-aging interventions that can activate the main positive lifespan genes. The team expects that successful anti-aging interventions could add to the increase of the expression of lifespan genes that are positive and lower the expression of the lifespan genes that are negative.

To view the original scientific study click below:
Comparative transcriptomics reveals circadian and pluripotency networks as two pillars of longevity regulation

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