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Before her first birthday, her parents knew something was seriously wrong. She was weak and inactive. The child, whom we are calling Lisa to protect her privacy, hardly interacted with them, and she was late on every developmental milestone – sitting, walking and speaking her first words. At the age […]

A team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is part of a new multi-institution effort to better understand Alzheimer’s disease in adults with Down syndrome. Adults with Down syndrome are at high risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease beginning in their late 40s, because of their unique biology. The vast […]

Near all work to date on the treatment of age-related disease has failed to consider or target underlying mechanisms of aging, the molecular damage that accumulates to cause pathology. It has instead involved one or another attempt to manipulate the complicated, disrrayed state of cellular metabolism in late stage disease, […]

As people age, they often lose their motivation to learn new things or engage in everyday activities. In a study of mice, MIT neuroscientists have now identified a brain circuit that is critical for maintaining this kind of motivation. This circuit is particularly important for learning to make decisions that […]

A major scientific effort is underway to characterize the proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid to improve diagnostics and clinical monitoring assays and discover potential therapies, for Alzheimer’s disease. Several research labs at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Stanford University are pooling their protein science expertise in this […]

According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide in recent years.  During a heart attack, or myocardial infarction (MI), a blocked artery and the resulting oxygen deprivation cause massive cardiac cell death, blood vessel impairment and inflammation. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Biomaterials Science […]

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have received intense scrutiny in recent years because of their persistence in the environment and potential endocrine-disrupting effects. However, their estrogenic activities are controversial, with different studies showing apparently contradictory results. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology have used a combination of laboratory experiments and computer […]

Senescent cells are damaging to tissue function and health when they linger and grow in number, as becomes the case with age. They contribute to the chronic inflammation of aging via their signaling, the senescence-associated secretory phenotype. In skin, senescent cells are most likely responsible for a sizable fraction of […]

Using a new technique, a team of McGill University researchers has found tiny and previously undetectable ‘hot spots’ of extremely high stiffness inside aggressive and invasive breast cancer tumours. Their findings suggest, for the first time, that only very tiny regions of a tumour need to stiffen for metastasis to […]

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have discovered a new inflammatory disorder called vacuoles, E1 enzyme, X-linked, autoinflammatory and somatic syndrome (VEXAS), which is caused by mutations in the UBA1 gene. VEXAS causes symptoms that included blood clots in veins, recurrent fevers, pulmonary abnormalities and vacuoles (unusual cavity-like structures) in […]

New study suggests interventions to help patients build muscle before surgery may improve their outcomes. Low muscle quality and quantity are both predictive of poor outcomes in colon resection surgery, according to a new study published in JAMA Surgery. Carla Prado, a researcher at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Agricultural, Life & […]

Oregon State University researchers have found that a type of common gut bacteria sometimes associated with inflammation, abscesses, bowel disease and cancer has a major silver lining: It seems to help prevent cardiovascular disease. The findings suggest the possibility of probiotic treatments for atherosclerosis, the dangerous buildup of fats, cholesterol […]