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Does cellular senescence hold secrets for healthier aging

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  Disease, injury, and other stress factors harm cells throughout our bodies. Ideally, the damaged cells are cleared by our immune systems through a process called apoptosis. But as we age, our bodies are no longer as effective at removing dysfunctional cells, and this can contribute to a weakened immune system and other less efficient biological processes. An increasing number of researchers are exploring whether learning to harness a cellular state known as senescence — during which damaged cells resist removal by apoptosis, linger, and harm neighboring normal cells — might hold the key to revitalizing aging tissues and increasing healthy, active years of life. Senescent cells are unique in that they eventually stop multiplying but don’t die off when they should. They instead remain and continue to release chemicals that can trigger inflammation. Like the one moldy piece of fruit that corrupts the entire bowl, a relatively small number of senescent cells can persist and spread in...
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NIH study offers insights into how cells reverse their decision to divide

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  A new study suggests that cells preparing to divide can reverse this process and return to a resting state, challenging long-held   beliefs about cell division. If interrupted early in their preparation to divide, cells were able to halt the division process, known as mitosis. The finding, led by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and reported July 5, 2023, in  Nature,  could point toward more effective treatments to interrupt the process by which cancer cells divide quickly and spread. When cells receive growth-promoting signals, called mitogens, they enter the cell cycle and synthesize new copies of their DNA in a series of steps that culminate in cell division. Scientists have long thought that the preparatory stage of this cycle includes a point after which cells cannot halt the process. Researchers believed that after this “point of no return,” growth signals are no longer needed to drive cells to div...
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Key players in brain aging: New research identifies age-related damage on a cellular level

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  Scientists at the Allen Institute have identified specific cell types in the brain of mice that undergo major changes as they age, along with a specific hot spot where many of those changes occur. The discoveries,  published  in the journal  Nature , could pave the way for future therapies to slow or manage the aging process in the brain. The scientists discovered dozens of specific cell types, mostly  glial cells , known as brain support cells, that underwent significant gene expression changes with age. Those strongly affected included microglia and border-associated macrophages, oligodendrocytes, tanycytes, and ependymal cells. They found that in aging brains, genes associated with inflammation increased in activity while those related to neuronal structure and function decreased. They also discovered a specific hot spot combining both the decrease in neuronal function and the increase in inflammation in the hypothalamus. The most significant gene expres...
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Nine promising small molecule drug discovery companies to look out for in 2025

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  Ascentage Pharma is discovering and developing small molecule drugs for the treatment of cancer that block or degrade protein targets implicated in cancer. It has active clinical programs targeting all three known classes of key apoptosis regulators that restore programmed cell death, a natural process where cells self-destruct in a controlled manner to maintain tissue homeostasis and eliminate damaged or potentially harmful cells. If this process is dysfunctional, however, it can lead to various diseases, especially cancer.  The company’s most advanced candidate is olverembatinib, which is cleared in China for certain patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, and is in phase 3 trials in multiple countries for the same indication, as well as for two other forms of cancer.  The company’s lead candidate is a PARG inhibitor called ETX-19477, which is in a phase 1 trial for solid tumors. PARG – which stands for poly(ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase – is an enzyme that plays an esse...
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Record-Shattering Molecule Stores Data at “Dark Side of the Moon” Temperatures

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  Researchers from The University of Manchester and The  Australian National University  (ANU) have developed a novel molecule capable of storing data at extremely low temperatures, comparable to the frigid conditions on the moon’s dark side at night. Their results, published in  Nature , point toward the potential for future data storage devices no larger than a postage stamp, yet capable of holding up to 100 times more information than today’s leading technologies. “The new single-molecule magnet developed by the research team can retain its magnetic memory up to 100 Kelvin, which is about minus 173 degrees  Celsius , or as cold as an evening on the moon,” co-lead author Professor Nicholas Chilton, from the ANU Research School of Chemistry, said. “This is a significant advancement from the previous record of 80 Kelvin, which is around minus 193 degrees Celsius. If perfected, these molecules could pack large amounts of information into tiny spaces. “Pink Floyd’...
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Pausing” Cell Death Could Be the Key to Longevity

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  Necrosis drives aging and disease by triggering damaging inflammation. Interrupting it may offer new treatments for chronic conditions and improve health in space travel. Necrosis, a form of uncontrolled cell death, may hold one of the most promising keys to altering the course of human aging, disease, and even space travel, according to a new study by researchers at UCL, the drug discovery company LinkGevity, and the  European Space Agency  (ESA). Challenging conventional thinking, the paper draws on evidence from cancer biology, regenerative medicine, kidney disease, and space health to argue that necrosis is not just a final stage of cell death, but a major driver of aging—and a potential target for intervention. Dr. Keith Siew, an author of the study from UCL Centre for Kidney & Bladder Health, said: “Nobody really likes talking about death, even cell death, which is perhaps why the physiology of death is so poorly understood. And in a way, necrosis is death. If...
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Uncovering the molecular drivers of liver cancer

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  Researchers discover that inflammation and aging contribute to non-viral liver cancer development. Green tea's role in reversing some of the pathway dysregulation that may contribute to the cancer development and other therapies explored. Liver cancer can arise spontaneously from healthy liver tissue. Recently, however, researchers have discovered an increasing correlation between some liver cancers and non-viral chronic liver disease (CLD). One liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is associated with CLD in about 15–25% of cases. While increasing awareness and screening of cancers has improved the ability to detect liver cancer at earlier stages when it is more effectively treated, cancer prevention is always a primary goal of both healthcare providers and biomedical researchers. The increasing prevalence of CLD with HCC suggests that this underlying condition predisposes liver tissue to cancer development. In order to investigate how healthy liver tissue differs from th...
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