Researchers publishing in Aging have used Mendelian randomization to conclude that the inflammatory factor IL6 causes increased mortality.
Category: life extension
Japanese government panel endorses Sumitomo Pharma’s iPS-derived treatment for Parkinson’s
The expert council of the Japanese Ministry of Health has approved two regenerative medicine drugs based on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) — a cure for Parkinson’s disease and heart failure. If the health minister approves the experts’ decision, Japan will become the first country in the world to allow the commercial sale of such products — almost 20 years after the discovery of the technology itself.
Japan’s health ministry said on Thursday a panel of specialists had endorsed Sumitomo Pharma’s iPS cell-derived treatment for Parkinson’s disease, paving the way for the world’s first medical products based on the technology.
A gel for wounds that won’t heal: Oxygen-delivering technology can prevent amputations
As aging populations and rising diabetes rates drive an increase in chronic wounds, more patients face the risk of amputations. UC Riverside researchers have developed an oxygen-delivering gel capable of healing injuries that might otherwise progress to limb loss.
Injuries that fail to heal for more than a month are considered chronic wounds. They affect an estimated 12 million people annually worldwide, and around 4.5 million in the U.S. Of these, about one in five patients will ultimately require a life-altering amputation.
The new gel, tested in animal models, targets what researchers believe is a root cause of many chronic wounds: a lack of oxygen in the deepest layers of the damaged tissue. Without sufficient oxygen, wounds languish in a prolonged state of inflammation, allowing bacteria to flourish and tissue to deteriorate rather than regenerate.
Senescent cells after pregnancy may fuel postpartum breast cancer spread
Postpartum breast cancer is diagnosed five to ten years after giving birth. It is associated with a higher risk of metastasis and a lower survival rate compared with women who have not been pregnant or those diagnosed during pregnancy. A team from the Institut Pasteur set out to understand the mammary gland mechanisms involved in tumor formation during involution, a major tissue remodeling process that occurs after pregnancy.
In a preclinical study, the scientists revealed how senescence, a cellular response inducing stable cell cycle arrest, plays an ambivalent role during mammary gland involution. While it is crucial for the normal tissue remodeling process in the mammary gland, senescence can also be hijacked by tumor cells to help them spread. This discovery, published in Nature Aging on February 18, 2026, suggests that targeting senescent cells during mammary gland involution could reduce the risk of postpartum breast cancer.
The Hume Band Might Be the Smartest Wearable for Stress + Recovery Yet
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Senescent astrocytes discovered in Alzheimer’s brains point to new treatment targets
Researchers from the NeuroAD group (Neuropathology of Alzheimer’s Disease) within the Department of Cell Biology, Genetics and Physiology at the University of Málaga, also affiliated with IBIMA–BIONAND Platform and CIBERNED, have made a pioneering breakthrough in the fight against this disease by identifying astrocytes as a promising cellular target for the development of future therapies.
The study demonstrates, for the first time, the presence of senescent astrocytes—cells that remain alive but have lost their functional capacity—in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, positioning this cellular aging process as a key mechanism in neurodegeneration.
The research, published in the journal Journal of Neuroinflammation, was led by Dr. Antonia Gutiérrez, Professor of Cell Biology and Principal Investigator of the NeuroAD group, together with Dr. Juan Antonio García León, Associate Professor of Cell Biology. Other contributors to the study include Laura Cáceres, Laura Trujillo, Elba López, Elisabeth Sánchez, and Inés Moreno.
Can personality change after 60? An eight-week program suggests it can
Younger and older adults alike are able to adopt new socio-emotional behaviors. Even older adults benefit from a personality intervention aimed at handling stress and challenging social situations better. This is the conclusion of a psychological aging research study conducted by researchers from Germany and Switzerland led by Prof. Dr. Cornelia Wrzus (Heidelberg University) and Prof. Dr. Corina Aguilar-Raab (University of Mannheim). The study examined the effects of an intervention program in participants of varying ages. It concluded that social and emotional skills training benefits both younger and older adults.
The study is published in the journal Communications Psychology.
According to the scientific community, socio-emotional behaviors include a person’s ability to recognize, express, and regulate their feelings as well as social relationships. This ability is associated with personal traits that influence, for example, how a person typically thinks, feels, and behaves in certain situations.
Discussing the implication of DNA methylation in human diseases
DNA methylation plays a critical role in gene expression regulation and has emerged as a robust biomarker of biological age. This modification will become heavier or site drift along with aging. Recently, it is termed epigenetic clocks—such as Horvath, Hannum, PhenoAge, and GrimAge—leverage specific methylation patterns to accurately predict age-related decline, disease risk, and mortality. These tools are now widely applied across diverse tissues, populations, and disease contexts. Beyond age-related loss of methylation control, accelerated DNA methylation age has been linked to environmental exposures, lifestyle factors, and chronic diseases, further reinforcing its value as a dynamic and clinically relevant marker of biological aging. DNA methylation is reshaping our understanding of aging and disease risk, with promising implications for preventive medicine and interventions aimed at promoting healthy longevity. However, it must be admitted that some challenges remain, including limited generalizability across populations, an unclear mechanism, and inconsistent longitudinal performance. In this review, we examine the biological foundations of DNA methylation, major advances in epigenetic clock development, and their expanding applications in aging research, disease prediction and health monitoring.
Aging is a complex, multifactorial process that affects nearly all biological systems. While chronological age simply measures the passage of time from birth, biological age reflects the functional state and health of an individual’s tissues and organs (Kiselev et al., 2025). This distinction is critical, as individuals of the same chronological age often exhibit markedly different biological conditions, disease risks, and mortality trajectories (Dugue et al., 2018). Therefore, biological age potentially serves as a more meaningful measure of aging-related decline and is increasingly used to assess overall health status, predict disease onset, and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions aimed at promoting healthy longevity (Dugue et al., 2018; Petkovich et al., 2017).
Among various biomarkers proposed to estimate biological age, epigenetic modifications—particularly DNA methylation—have emerged as one of the most reliable and informative (Dugue et al., 2018). In epigenetics, DNA methylation involves the addition of a methyl group to the 5′ position of cytosine residues, typically at CpG dinucleotides, which can regulate gene expression without altering the underlying DNA sequence. Moreover, DNA methylation can be accurately measured by sequencing at methylated sites with bisulfate treatment (Zhang et al., 2012). Age-related changes in DNA methylation pattern are not random; they occur at specific genomic locations. These methylated sites are picked and constitute come patterns, by which scientists can construct “epigenetic clocks” to precisely estimate a person’s biological age based on their DNA modification. As people grow older, their methylation profiles shift in predictable ways (Kiselev et al., 2025; Horvath, 2013; Horvath and Raj, 2018).