(news.bbc.co.uk)You might recall research from last year suggesting age-related decline in the choroid plexus contributes to the buildup of amyloid characteristic to Alzheimer's disease. the choroid plexus acts as a sort of 'fishnet' that captures the protein, called beta-amyloid, and prevents it from building up in the cerebrospinal fluid, which surrounds and bathes the brain and spinal cord. Moreover, tissue in the organ is able to soak up large amounts of the protein and may contain enzymes capable of digesting beta-amyloid. I noticed a paper today that focuses on a quite different aspect of decline in the choroid plexus, but one that still leaves the brain the worse for it. Aging reduces the neuroprotective capacity, VEGF secretion, and metabolic activity of rat choroid plexus epithelial cells: Delivery of neurotrophic molecules to the brain has potential for preventing neuronal loss in neurodegenerative disorders. Choroid plexus (CP) epithelial cells secrete numerous neurotrophic factors, and encapsulated CP transplants are neuroprotective in models of stroke and Huntington's disease (HD). ... In vitro, young CP epithelial cells secreted more VEGF and were metabolically more active than aged CP epithelial cells. ... Implants of young CP were potently neuroprotective as rats receiving CP transplants were not...

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(news.bbc.co.uk)Oxidative stress is the unassuming name for the state in which reactive oxygen species - the free radicals of the free radical theory of aging - are present in sufficient numbers to overwhelm the body's antioxidant defenses and thus cause potentially lasting damage and degredation by reacting with important molecules in cellular machinery. If you care to head back in the archives a way, I explain some of the mechanisms in more detail in a post on the mitochondrial free radical theory of aging: where it is these reactive oxygen species come from, and how it is that they can do so much harm, leading to conditions such as atherosclerosis. A paper on the rise of oxidative stress with aging caught my eye today: Aging-Related Oxidative Stress in Healthy Humans: Oxidative stress has been reported to increase with aging; however, the scientific evidence is controversial. We therefore aimed to analyze the relationship between aging and some markers of oxidative stress. ... there was no age-related change in oxidative stress markers in subjects of < 60 years. These findings suggest that age of > 60 years may be associated with increased oxidative stress. The full PDF version of that paper is...

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Yesterday I stumbled onto a press release on the topic of funding from the Ellison Medical Foundation and the American Federation for Aging Research. I am very struck by the tone of the piece: The Ellison Medical Foundation has awarded AFAR more than $2.8 million to support 45 postdoctoral fellows (both MDs and PhDs at any level of postdoctoral training) over the next three years in the fundamental mechanisms of aging. With this new commitment, the Ellison Medical Foundation/AFAR partnership has increased five-fold the number of researchers it will support. ... There are so many promising scientists yet we are only able to fund eight percent of the applicants who seek grants. There's a potential to lose a tremendous brain trust of future leaders in aging research. The Ellison Medical Foundation has taken a lead role in helping the next generation of researchers establish careers and an aging society will benefit ... In the face of this opportunity we currently see declining federal support for scientists. Those just beginning their careers are especially vulnerable as support dries up. Our hope is that this decline is temporary, yet even a temporary reduction in support for scientists just beginning their careers...
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Labels: healthy life, medical, press release

(news.bbc.co.uk)We humans possess some ugly instincts, hardwired into us over evolutionary time. The ape inside is not a pleasant fellow; he'd rather tear down pillars of success into a rubble of equal poverty for all than than use those pillars to raise up the areas between to a higher level of living. He's ever ready to believe the worst, to choose mysticism over science, hold the irrational beliefs of peers over demonstrated reality, and live in lazy ignorance rather than work to be educated. All instincts can be mastered, and we are the masters of the ape inside - if we choose to be. Not a lot of mastering going on in the majority of the comments at AlterNet to a reprint on longevity science, however. I am always amazed at those people who stand convinced that new medical technologies and capabilities will be restricted to the "elites" - this flies so much in the face of even a cursory examination of the present day and recent history that it rises to the level of myth. It is a defining belief held as a part of tribal membership, divorced from any need to conform to reality. From this errant belief,...

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(news.bbc.co.uk)Some good points made in the discussion to a post on the low cost-effectiveness of government-funded medical research: Writing in The Scientist Frederick Sachs argues that the large increase in funding for the US National Institutes of Health did not produce a commensurate increase in scientific productivity as measured by papers published. ... Geez. An inefficient, ineffective, socialist, bureaucratic research system (as measured by its failure to cure most anything over 40 years) hits diminishing returns... Am I the only one not surprised? Sublimate it as rapidly as possible into a free-market, sink or swim, enterprise and maybe we will see something good come of it. That point is made at greater length and in greater detail in the comments by those who work inside the system. It's an important point for people with an eye on the next few decades of progress - if you want to see significant results in the advancement of human longevity, merely throwing resources at the problem is inadequate in and of itself. Without the right incentives, accountability, freedom and community, there will be immense waste, and the immense cost of missed opportunity. All spending by centralized government bodies is of that nature; no...

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Articles on rising life expectancy will be a lazy journalistic staple in the mainstream from here on out - they write themselves, and you can push one out on autopilot every six months or so. The statistics even come superficially pre-analyzed these days; no thought needed by the media outlet at all. We'll ponder the irony inherent in this post while looking at the statistics: Life expectancy rates in the United States are at an all-time high, with people born in 2005 projected to live for nearly 78 years, a new federal study finds. The finding reflects a continuing trend of increasing life expectancy that began in 1955, when the average American lived to be 69.6 years old.
By 1995, life expectancy was 75.8 years, and by 2005, it had risen to 77.9 years, according to the report. Life expectancy is a subtle statistic - it doesn't measure quite what you might think it measures. But medicine is becoming more effective; we are indeed in an upward trend, the result of massive investment in medical and biotechnological progress. It's a slow boat of a trend when it comes to additional years of life, however, and people are overly focused on...(news.bbc.co.uk)

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