Pomegranate juice slows PSA acceleration rate after prostate cancer surgery, radiation

Pomegranate juice slows PSA acceleration rate after prostate cancer surgery, radiation: "Pomegranate juice packs a punch on prostate cancer that prolongs post-surgery PSA doubling time, drives down cancer cell proliferation and causes prostate cancer cells to die, according to a study published in the July 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research."

Stem Cells and the Immune System

Stem Cells and the Immune System: "Biochemistry is always more complex than you think. Via Medical News Today, we learn that our stem cells are very involved in the immune response: 'marrow stem cells -- undifferentiated cells that eventually give rise to the blood cells that fight infection -- possess receptors that recognize bacteria and viruses. When activated, these receptors kick the stem cells and immature blood cells into action, enlisting them to help fight whatever pathogen is attacking the body.' This opens the door to possible methods of controlling, enhancing or repairing the aging immune system. 'It may be possible to boost immunity when necessary and also shut down inappropriate responses. That could provide a powerful tool to fight cancer, lupus and many other diseases.'

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=45620
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/"

RNA found in the cellular centrosome of surf clams

RNA found in the cellular centrosome of surf clams: "Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole and Louisiana State University (LSU) Health Sciences Center have discovered the presence of the genetic material RNA in the centrosome, the organizing structure inside each cell that assures proper cell division. The findings, detailed June 5 in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, present evidence that individual centrosomes within a cell may carry their own genetic material."

Transcription factor protein's role in cell death, neurodegeneration and schizophrenia

Transcription factor protein's role in cell death, neurodegeneration and schizophrenia: "Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine discovered that a protein called Elk-1 interacts with mitochondria, the energy storehouse of a cell, suggesting that this protein -- typically active in the nucleus -- could play a role in cell death and mitochondria-related diseases such as neurodegeneration and schizophrenia."

Seeing beyond the gray areas: New tool uncovers the importance of the brain's white matter

Seeing beyond the gray areas: New tool uncovers the importance of the brain's white matter: "Up until now there has been very little known about the brain's white matter-a new tool is about to change that."

Bone marrow may restore cells lost in vision diseases

Bone marrow may restore cells lost in vision diseases: "The finding by University of Florida scientists may shatter the belief that a cell layer vital for eyesight called the retinal pigment epithelium is a nonrenewable resource."

Report focuses on the role good microbes play in future medicine

Report focuses on the role good microbes play in future medicine: "Not all bacteria are bad. In fact, beneficial microbes could represent the future of medicine, with the potential to treat a variety of diseases in humans and animals from diarrhea and eczema to gum disease and autoimmune disorders, according to a report released by the American Academy of Microbiology, Probiotic Microbes: The Scientific Basis."

Women.s skin tone influences perception of beauty, health, age, sociobiologists find

Women.s skin tone influences perception of beauty, health, age, sociobiologists find: "Using a revolutionary imaging process, a new study is revealing that wrinkles aren't the only cue the human eye looks for to evaluate age. The study used 3-D imaging and morphing software technologies to remove wrinkles and bone structure from the equation to determine the true impact of facial skin color distribution on the perception of a woman's age, health and attractiveness and is currently in the edit acceptance process with the journal Evolution and Human Behavior."

Continuing Growth in Life Expectancy

Continuing Growth in Life Expectancy: "(From the Telegraph). Life expectancy is continuing to rise, just as one would expect from the Reliability Theory of aging and across the board improvements in medical technology: 'Life expectancy in Britain has been increasing at a rate of five hours every day ... Previous forecasts of life expectancy had predicted that the rapid increase seen in recent decades would begin to level off steeply, and bump up against a ceiling, but the ageing process seems much more malleable than this. ... Biological research over the last 20 years has shown us that actually there is no strict biological programme for ageing and no set upper limit for the length of human life. It is about time people woke up to this. ... At the moment we have an extraordinarily ageist society. It is about time we recognised that people are living longer and longer.' Those extra years are extra healthy years - and we could be doing far better to provide more of them.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/06/10/nage10.xml
"

Interesting Fly Longevity Research

Interesting Fly Longevity Research: "EurekAlert brings us interesting research in flies: scientists 'showed in 2003 that boosting the amount of a molecular signal known as JNK in a fruit fly allows the fly to live 85 days instead of 60, by spurring the fly to defend itself more aggressively against the oxidative stress that accelerates with aging. ... While scientists knew that JNK in a fly cranks up the anti-oxidants, helping to keep the integrity of genes and proteins [intact], few had considered that simply boosting the amount of JNK could have such a broad impact on life span. ... JNK targets the same protein as the widely studied insulin receptor, central to human health and to the disease process that underlies diabetes ... We're learning that an organism's life span may not be limited by design. It was once thought that people and other organisms could simply live only a certain number of years and that's it. Instead, our genes play a crucial role in determining and adjusting how long we live. Can we control this process more fully?'

View the Article Under Discussion:"

Viral Gene Therapy Squashes Cancer

Viral Gene Therapy Squashes Cancer: "Impressive progress is being made with gene therapies in the laboratory, as demonstrated by this item from EurekAlert: 'researchers have used gene therapy to either completely abolish or significantly inhibit tumor progression in a mouse model of ovarian cancer ... They treated some of the mice immediately with a genetically engineered vaccinia virus containing a gene coding cytosine deaminase, a suicide gene, and delayed treatment of other mice for 30 or 60 days. ... The researchers found complete inhibition of tumor growth in the mice that were treated immediately with gene therapy and significant tumor inhibition in the 30- and 60-day delayed treatment mice.' Scientists can now target abnormal cells with great specificity based on their biochemistry, but the real economic barrier for this sort of treatment is the enormous variety in that biochemistry for cancer cells.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-06/uopm-gtc060106.php
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/"

On Premature Cellular Senescence

On Premature Cellular Senescence: "How much of degenerative aging is due to the acculumation of senescent, no longer functioning cells? More in some tissues than others, such as skin, it seems. 'Cellular senescence is considered an essential contributor to the aging process and has been shown to be an important tumor suppression mechanism. In addition, emerging evidence suggests that senescence may also be involved in the pathogenesis of stem cell dysfunction and chronic human diseases. Under these circumstances cells undergo stress-induced premature senescence, which has several specific features.' As this review paper points out, developing a technology to turn off programmed senescence would simply result in much more cancer - the process serves an important purpose in shutting down potentially dangerous cells. The problem needs a better solution, more likely focused on convincing the body to recycle these cells rather than leaving them to degrade the performance of tissue.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://ajpheart.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/290/5/H1729
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://w"

On Parkinson's As Faster Aging

On Parkinson's As Faster Aging: "A slightly different take on recent research into Parkinson's disease and mitochondria can be found at the Daily Progress: 'In one sense, the disease may represent a premature aging of the nervous system ... In aging, what happens over time is the rate at which you produce oxygen free radicals exceeds the rate at which you can detoxify them ... for some reason, he said, people with Parkinson's have more damage from free radicals ... Bennett hopes that as he learns more [he] can begin to test a drug that would absorb the free radicals in the neuronal mitochondria and stop the damage they cause. He also hopes to develop a way to test mitochondrial damage in other tissues or cells, such as in blood platelets, to come up with an earlier way to test for Parkinson?s. The disease can only be diagnosed currently when symptoms begin to appear, which Elliott said occurs after 70 percent to 80 percent of the dopamine cells have already been lost.'

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.dailyprogress.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=CDP%2FMGA"

Engineering Bone Growth

Engineering Bone Growth: "Researchers at HHMI are working on another way to stimulate bone growth - a potential strategy to treat osteoporosis: 'slightly increasing the activity of a protein called NFATc1 causes massive bone accumulation ... Mice with the hyperactive NFATc in their osteoblasts had an immense increase in bone mass compared to normal mice, suggesting that the balance between bone formation and breakdown had tipped. ... The results were dramatic, yet the molecular alteration is very, very minimal ... NFATc1 in the mice that developed extra bone mass was only 10 percent more active than it is in normal mice. ... If you could find a small molecule that would flip 10 percent of the existing NFATc into the active form, you could favor the formation of osteoblasts and make stronger bones.'

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.hhmi.org/news/winslow_crabtree20060606.html
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/"

John Holloszy on Calorie Restriction

John Holloszy on Calorie Restriction: "The MIT Technology Review recently interviewed researcher John Holloszy: practitioners of calorie restriction [CR] are 'are powerfully protected against the diseases of old age, such as heart disease. They have low levels of cholesterol and triglycerides and extremely low blood pressure - similar to a young child, around 100/60. As a result of the low blood pressure, they have less strain on the arteries, which are much more elastic than usual for people of their age. Their hearts resemble the heart of a person 17 years younger. They also have very good insulin sensitivity, so they are not going to get Type 2 diabetes. ... As we get older, we get an increasing amount of inflammation, which is probably a very important part of the aging process. [CR practitioners] have very low levels of inflammation. C reactive protein, for example, is a marker and cause of inflammation. An average value for a middle-age person is about 2.5; but [CR practitioners] have levels of 0.2. It's just amazing.'

View the Article Under Discussion: http:"

Tissue Engineering Heart Tissue

Tissue Engineering Heart Tissue: "Via ABC Online, a look at one strategy to build three-dimensional tissue structures: 'It involves combining the expertise of biologists and chemical engineers, particularly where we mix cells and scaffolds together and implant them in the body where they grow and mature and develop into specific tissues. ... this essentially is an empty box into which we implant a blood vessel using microsurgery techniques. ... we use microsurgery to create this environment and we mix cells inside this chamber and we let them grow according to the specific environment that we can create. Now, currently we have been able to make breast tissue, fat, muscle, pancreas tissue that secretes insulin and we have also created thymus tissue, which may have an application in immunology. ... There is an artery in it that keeps this alive, but the heart cells are actually beating at their own rhythm.'

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2006/s1657710.htm
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/"

SENS Challenge Submissions Unveiled

SENS Challenge Submissions Unveiled: "The next step in the $20,000 SENS Challenge is now online at the MIT Technology Review. Three critiques of the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) - the start of a roadmap to effective therapies to prevent and repair degenerative aging - and biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey's rebuttals are available for consideration by the recently formed panel of judges. Good to see progress towards greater engagement and debate by the scientific community! Science is not advanced when the old guard refuses to debate new ideas and paradigms on the merits - constant, robust examination is a pillar of the scientific method. Only by widening the debate within and surrounding the scientific community can the SENS proposals be made more robust, and formed into the best possible course towards radical life extension within our lifetimes. You'll find more thoughts over at Fight Aging!

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.technologyreview.com/sens/
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/"

More Oxidative Stress Research

More Oxidative Stress Research: "Scientists are making progress in unraveling the complex biochemistry of oxidative stress: how it originates, how it damages our cells, how it contributes to age-related conditions. Via RxPG News, a look at recent research: 'Just as humans undergo daily stress, so do our individual cells. The cellular variety, called oxidative stress, is caused by the build-up of free radicals, which over time inflict damage linked to aging and age related diseases such as Alzheimer's. [Researchers] have now defined a molecular signaling pathway by which oxidative stress triggers cell death, a finding that could pave the way for new drug targets and diagnostic strategies for age-related diseases. ... Once stimulated by oxidative stress, MST acts in its capacity as an enzyme to modify and thereby activate the FOXO proteins, instructing the FOXO proteins to move from the periphery of the cell into the nucleus of neurons. Once in the nucleus, the FOXO proteins were found to turn on genes that commit neurons to programmed death.'

View the Article Under Discussion: http://w"

Einstein researchers take the pulse of a gene in living cells

Einstein researchers take the pulse of a gene in living cells: "Scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have observed for the first time that gene expression can occur in the form of discrete 'pulses' of gene activity. The researchers used pioneering microscopy techniques, developed by Dr. Robert Singer and colleagues at Einstein, that for the first time allow scientists to directly watch the behavior of a single gene in real time."

Welcome!!

I could not believe that this blog name was not taken!

My intent is to link items of interest to the life entension community here.

I'm just going to get started now.