Shaped like a gun, Nanomedic’s SpinCare device emits a web of electrospun polymer nanofabric that stays put for weeks—no dressing changes required.
[Source Photo: Nanomedic Technologies Ltd.]
Aging manifests itself through a decline in organismal homeostasis and a multitude of cellular and physiological functions. Efforts to identify a common basis for vertebrate aging face many challenges; for example, while there have been documented changes in the expression of many hundreds of mRNAs, the results across tissues and species have been inconsistent. We therefore analyzed age-resolved transcriptomic data from 17 mouse organs and 51 human organs using unsupervised machine learning3 –5 to identify the architectural and regulatory characteristics most informative on the differential expression of genes with age. We report a hitherto unknown phenomenon, a systemic age-dependent length-driven transcriptome imbalance that for older organisms disrupts the homeostatic balance between short and long transcript molecules for mice, rats, killifishes, and humans. We also demonstrate that in a mouse model of healthy aging, length-driven transcriptome imbalance correlates with changes in expression of splicing factor proline and glutamine rich (Sfpq), which regulates transcriptional elongation according to gene length. Furthermore, we demonstrate that length-driven transcriptome imbalance can be triggered by environmental hazards and pathogens. Our findings reinforce the picture of aging as a systemic homeostasis breakdown and suggest a promising explanation for why diverse insults affect multiple age-dependent phenotypes in a similar manner.
The transcriptome responds rapidly, selectively, strongly, and reproducibly to a wide variety of molecular and physiological insults experienced by an organism. While the transcripts of thousands of genes have been reported to change with age, the magnitude by which most transcripts change is small in comparison with classical examples of gene regulation2,8 and there is little consensus among different studies. We hence hypothesize that aging is associated with a hitherto uncharacterized process that affects the transcriptome in a systemic manner. We predict that such a process could integrate heterogenous, and molecularly distinctive, environmental insults to promote phenotypic manifestations of aging.
We use an unsupervised machine learning approach3 –5 to identify the sources of age-dependent changes in the transcriptome. To this end, we measure and survey the transcriptome of 17 mouse organs from 6 biological replicates at 5 different ages from 4 to 24 months raised under standardized conditions (Fig. 1A). We consider information on the structural architecture of individual genes and transcripts, and knowledge on the binding of regulatory molecules such as transcription factors and microRNAs (miRNAs) (Fig. 1B). We define age-dependent fold-changes as the log2-transformed ratio of transcripts of one gene at a given age relative to the transcripts of that gene in the organs of 4-month-old mice. As expected for models capturing most measurable changes in transcript abundance, the predicted fold-changes (Fig. S1) match changes empirically observed between distinct replicate cohorts of mice (Figs. S2 and S3).
Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) root extract is very popular ancient herbal medicine. The objective of the study was to characterize and evaluate the impact of The Trivedi Effect® — Energy of Consciousness Healing Treatment (Biofield Energy Healing) on phytoconstituents present in the ashwagandha root extract using GC-MS and NMR. Ashwagandha root extract was divided into two parts. One part was denoted as the control, while the other part was defined as The Trivedi Effect® — Biofield Energy Treated sample, which received The Trivedi Effect® — Energy of Consciousness Healing Treatment remotely from eighteen renowned Biofield Energy Healers. The GC-MS data indicated that the peak height and peak area of The Trivedi Effect® treated sample were found to be altered compared with the control sample. The peak height of the phytoconstituents present in the treated ashwagandha sample was altered significantly in the range of −8.32% to 89.25% compared with the control sample. Similarly, the peak area of the treated sample was altered significantly in the range of — 4.28% to 216.30% compared with the control sample. Overall, the change in the peak area% of the treated sample was significantly altered in the range of −18.29% to 170.18% compared with the control sample. The GC-MS and NMR analysis results identified the presence of withanolides such as glyco-withanolides, alkaloids, and sugars in the root extract in both the sample. The peak area of 2,3,4,5-tetrahydropyridazine , methyl ethyl sulfoxide , 5,6-dihydro-2-methyl-4(H)pyran-3,4-dione , diethoxy-2-methyl-propane , 2,3,4,5-tetrahydroxy-tetrahydro-pyran , and 3,4-dimethyl-2(3H)-furanone were significantly increased by 170.18%, 58.21%, 7.74%, 139.50%, 23.16%, and 45.63%, respectively in the treated sample compared with the control sample. On the contrary, the peak area% of 2-hydroxy-γ-butyrolactone was decreased by — 14.96% in the treated ashwagandha compared with the control sample. From the results, it can be hypothesized that The Trivedi Effect® — Biofield Energy Treatment might have the impact on the intrinsic physicochemical properties of the phytoconstituents present in the ashwagandha root extract and responsible for the alteration in the relative peak height/area of treated sample compared with the control sample. As a result, the concentrations of the phytoconstituents assumed to be increased in treated sample compared with the control sample. This treated ashwagandha root extract would be helpful for designing better nutraceutical/pharmaceutical formulations which might be providing a better therapeutic response against autoimmune diseases, nervous and sexual disorders, infectious diseases, antiaging, diabetes, cancer, immunological disorders, stress, arthritis, etc.
Keywords:
Biofield Energy Healing Treatment, Biofield Energy Healers, Consciousness Energy Healers, The Trivedi Effect®, Withania somnifera, Withanolides, GC-MS, NMR.
HOT OFF THE PRESS! The cohort size (15 patients) is small, but this approach of successfully using viruses against cancer is worth celebrating! https://www.bbc.com/news/health-48868261
A small UK study found promising signs of a kinder, less invasive treatment for the disease.
The old DIY CRISPR tickles some, but it underwhelms others, namely, the developers of commercial applications. They prefer the new CRISPR—scalable, reliable, and deliverable.
To me cryonics just makes sense. It may not be pretty but, just like open heart surgery, it is one of those things that, without any guarantees, can possibly extend your life [very] substantially. Thus, especially given the alternative, I just can’t quite make sense of the slow rate of adoption evident not only in North America but also across the world. And so I am always happy to discover new books that lay out the scientific argument for cryonics while making it easily digestible and giving it a very personal, human perspective. Since the most recent book, I thoroughly enjoyed on this topic was Frozen to Life: A Personal Mortality Experiment I thought that D.J. MacLennan will make an excellent guest on my podcast. I was not wrong about that.
During our 1 hour conversation with D.j. MacLennan we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he decided to write Frozen to Life and who is it for; cryonics as a glass-state time travel; why he chose neuro- rather than full-body preservation; the costs and rate of adoption of cryonics; the culture, conservatism and geography of his home on the Isle of Skye; transhumanism and transcending limitations; the differences between Max More and James Hughes; his fear of death; the promise of chemical brain preservation; mindfulness and meditation; writing a transhumanist take on The Wizard of Oz and potentially on Grim’s Fairy Tales…
As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon.
Pancreatic cancer is especially challenging to treat—only eight percent of patients are still alive five years after diagnosis. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are of limited benefit, and even immunotherapy—which revolutionized treatment for other kinds of cancer by activating the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells—has been largely ineffective because pancreatic tumors have ways to dampen the immune assault.
Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Rush University in Chicago have found a chemical compound that promotes a vigorous immune assault against the deadly cancer. Alone, the compound reduces pancreatic tumor growth and metastases in mice. But when combined with immunotherapy, the compound significantly shrank tumors and dramatically improved survival in the animals.
The findings, published July 3 in Science Translational Medicine, suggest that the immune-boosting compound could potentially make resistant pancreatic cancers susceptible to immunotherapy and improve treatment options for people with the devastating disease.
When I was kid I used to watch the Incredible Hulk on TV and wait for Bruce Banner to fly into a rage, his muscles inflating like balloons, pants torn to shreds while his entire body turns green as he transforms into the Hulk. As I grew up, and learned more about the advances in genetics, it never occurred to me that cutting-edge genome-editing techniques could explain the scientific principles behind the Hulk’s metamorphosis or his fellow Marvel Comics star-spangled hero Captain America. In a recent Stanford Report story, Sebastian Alvarado Opens in a new window, a postdoctoral research fellow in biology, creatively applies the concepts of epigenetics to illuminate the process by which average Joes become superheroes.
As Alvarado notes in the piece Opens in a new window and above video, over the past 70 years scientists have developed tools for selectively activating and deactivating individual genes through chemical reactions, a process termed epigenetics. Similar to flipping on a light, switch gene expression can be “turned on” or “turned off. ”We have a lot of genome-editing tools – like zinc finger nucleases, or CRISPR/Cas9 systems – that could theoretically allow you to epigenetically seek out and turn on genes that make your muscles physically large, make you strategically minded, incredibly fast, or increase your stamina,” he said.
You know that spherical ship from 2001: A Space Odyssey that generated its own gravity by spinning around in the cosmic void? We’re not there yet, but we’re getting closer.
Microgravity can be detrimental for the human body, because our species just wasn’t made to survive in space without high-tech help. Now aerospace engineer Torin Clark and his team from CU Boulder are turning the artificial gravity tech from movies like 2001 and The Martian into a reality. While an entire ship that makes its own gravity is still light-years away, the team has managed to design a revolving contraption that could save astronauts from too much zero-G exposure.
Continue reading “This artificial gravity machine is right out of 2001: A Space Odyssey” »
As published in a recent study, researchers have discovered that neural stem cells are impeded by the invasion of T cells, immune cells that are not normally present in the neural stem cell niche.
The neural stem cell niches
Our brains contain neural stem cells (NSCs); like their name suggests, these cells are responsible for the formation of new neurons within the brain. This process, which continues throughout life, is known as neurogenesis. These stem cells live in particular niches, which contain a panoply of different cell types, including stem cells in different phases of development and multiple types of immune cells. However, the researchers discovered a startling fact: the brains of older mice contain many specific immune cells known as T cells, while the brains of younger mice contain very few – and, as the study explains, this is true for humans as well.
