This 2021 study subject was bats: “Exceptionally long-lived species, including many bats, rarely show overt signs of aging, making it difficult to determine why species differ in lifespan. Here, we use DNA methylation (DNAm) profiles from 712 known-age bats, representing 26 species, to identify epigenetic changes associated with age and longevity. Hypermethylated age- and longevity-associated … Continue reading A bat epigenetic clock
This 2020 Washington State University rodent study examined how great-grandmothers’ JP-8 exposures produced diseases in their great-grand offspring: “Ancestral exposure to environmental influences such as toxicants, abnormal nutrition, and traumatic stress can affect the germline epigenome and promote the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of adult onset disease in various organisms from plants to humans. Biological mechanisms … Continue reading Jet fuel exposure causes diseases in the great-grand offspring
This 2020 review attempted to consolidate thousands of research papers on oxytocin: “Chemical properties of oxytocin make this molecule difficult to work with and to measure. Effects of oxytocin are context-dependent, sexually dimorphic, and altered by experience. Its relationship to a related hormone, vasopressin, have created challenges for its use as a therapeutic drug. Widely … Continue reading Unraveling oxytocin – is it nature’s medicine?
Ever heard about AGEs? Here are three papers that describe how AGEs affect humans. First is a 2020 Italian review Common Protective Strategies in Neurodegenerative Disease: Focusing on Risk Factors to Target the Cellular Redox System: “Neurodegenerative disease is an umbrella term for different conditions which primarily affect the neurons in the human brain. Currently, … Continue reading Get serious about advanced glycation end products (AGEs)
To follow up A rejuvenation therapy and sulforaphane, the study’s lead laboratory researcher – Dr. Harold Katcher – provided evidence for an environmental signaling paradigm of aging in this 2015 paper: “The age-phenotype of a cell or organ depends on its environment and not its history. Organ dysfunction is not the cause of aging, but … Continue reading An environmental signaling paradigm of aging
This 2020 review by a Hong Kong company’s researchers compared and contrasted measures of biological age: “More than a dozen aging clocks use molecular features to predict an organism’s age, each of them utilizing different data types and training procedures. We offer a detailed comparison of existing mouse and human aging clocks, discuss their technological … Continue reading Linear thinking about biological age clocks
This 2020 Korean letter to a journal editor cited 23 recent papers in support of sulforaphane’s positive effects, mainly in anti-cancer treatments: “Gene expression is mediated by chromatin epigenetic changes, including DNA methylation, histone modifications, promoter-enhancer interactions, and non-coding RNA (microRNA and long non-coding RNA)-mediated regulation. Approximately 50% of all tumor suppressor genes are inactivated … Continue reading Eat broccoli sprouts today!
This 2020 Swiss/German review mainly cited weed, worm, and yeast studies: “RNA interference-related mechanisms can mediate the deposition and transgenerational inheritance of specific chromatin modifications in a truly epigenetic fashion. Epigenetics was initially defined as any heritable change in gene expression patterns without changes in the DNA sequence. Now, epigenetic phenomena are often characterized as … Continue reading An evolutionary view of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance
This 2020 French review subject was parasitical influences on host epigenetic processes: “Parasites have become masters of manipulating their host cells, exploiting signaling, and metabolic pathways to hijack host gene expression to their own advantage. These intracellular parasites have developed a wide range of strategies that affect transcriptional machineries and epigenetic events in the host … Continue reading Masters of manipulating their host
This 2019 Canadian rodent study found: “Folic acid (FA) supplementation mitigates sperm miRNA profiles transgenerationally following in utero paternal exposure to POPs [persistent organic pollutants]. Across the F1 – F4 generations, sperm miRNA profiles were less perturbed with POPs + FA compared to sperm from descendants of dams treated with POPs alone..and only in F1 … Continue reading Epigenetic inheritance and microRNAs
This 2019 worldwide discussion among 18 experts concerned T cell exhaustion: “‘T cell exhaustion’ is a broad term that has been used to describe the response of T cells to chronic antigen stimulation, first in the setting of chronic viral infection but more recently in response to tumours. Key questions remain about the potential to … Continue reading Reversing epigenetic T cell exhaustion
This 2019 Finnish review focused on vitamin D’s immune system effects: “The epigenome of human monocytes is at multiple levels sensitive to vitamin D. These data served as the basis for the chromatin model of vitamin D signaling, which mechanistically explains the activation of a few hundred primary vitamin D target genes. Vitamin D and … Continue reading Get outside today
This 2019 Spanish human study compared DNA methylation, chromatin and histone modifications in the hippocampus of deceased Alzheimer’s disease patients with controls: “A significant percentage of the differentially methylated genes were related to neural development and neurogenesis. It was astounding that other biological, cellular, and molecular processes generally associated with neurodegeneration such as apoptosis, autophagy, … Continue reading Linking adult neurogenesis to Alzheimer’s disease
This 2019 Dutch/German/Romanian perspective aimed for a better understanding of immune systems: “Based on molecular, immunological, and evolutionary arguments, we propose that innate immune memory is a primitive form of immune memory present in all living organisms, while adaptive immune memory is an advanced form of immune memory representing an evolutionary innovation in vertebrates. Innate … Continue reading Immune memory vs. immune adaptation
This 2018 Chinese animal review subject was prenatal and perinatal anesthesia’s adverse epigenetic effects on a fetus/neonate: “Accumulating evidence from rodent and primate studies has demonstrated that in utero or neonatal exposure to commonly used inhaled and intravenous general anesthetics is associated with neural degeneration and subsequent neurocognitive impairments, manifested in learning and memory disabilities. … Continue reading Adverse epigenetic effects of prenatal and perinatal anesthesia
