Issue 2, 2008

This seems to be the SENS-3 conference proceedings report. Very few interesting ones.

By the abstracts, and by the sections they are under:

Cardiovascular disease

"Age-Specific Modulation of Genes Involved in Lipid and Cholesterol Homeostasis by Dietary Zinc" by Dawn J. Mazzatti, Eugenio Mocchegiani, and Jonathan R. Powell. The abstract doesn't say any more than the title.

"Modulation of Genes Involved in Zinc Homeostasis in Old Low-Grade Atherosclerotic Patients Under Effects of HMG-CoA Reductase Inhibitors" by Laura Costarelli, Elisa Muti, Marco Malavolta, Robertina Giacconi, Catia Cipriano, Davide Sartini, Monica Emanuelli, Mauro Silvestrini, Leandro Provinciali, Beatrice Gobbi, and Eugenio Mocchegiani. Beyond me. Something about zinc signalling in specific immune cells.

"TLR2 and Age-Related Diseases: Potential Effects of Arg753Gln and Arg677Trp Polymorphisms in Acute Myocardial Infarction" by Carmela Rita Balistreri, Guiseppina Candore, Monica Mirabile, Domenico Lio, Gregorio Caimi, Egle Incalcaterra, Marco Caruso, Enrico Hoffmann, and Calogero Caruso. No association between those two polymorphisms and MI.

"A Novel Zip2 Gln/Arg/Leu Codon 2 Polymorphism Is Associated with Carotid Artery Disease in Aging" by Robertina Giacconi, Elisa Muti, Marco Malavolta, Maurizio Cardelli, Sara Pierpaoli, Catia Cipriano, Laura Costarelli, Silvia Tesei, Vittorio Saba, and Eugenio Mocchegiani. Patients with carotid stenosis have more GG and less TT in codon 2 of the hZIP2 gene than controls.

Neurodegeneration

"DNA Vaccine Therapy for Alzheimer's Disease: Present Status and Future Direction" by Yoshio Okura and Yoh Matsumoto. Review of vaccine therapies for Alzheimer's and positive data about non-viral DNA vaccine experiments on mice.

"Decreased Presence of Perforated Synapses in a Triple-Transgenic Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease" by Carlo Bertoni-Freddari, Stefano L. Sensi, Belinda Giorgetti, Marta Balietti, Giuseppina Di Stefano, Lorella M.T. Canzoniero, Tiziana Casoli, and Patrizia Fattoretti. Comparison of the brains of an Alzheimer's mouse model with controls.

"An Ultrasensitive Assay for Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease" by Susanne Aileen Funke, Eva Birkmann, Franziska Henke, Philipp Görtz, Christian Lange-Asschenfeldt, Detlev Riesner, and Dieter Willbold. Test for amyloid beta using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (no idea). Correlations between those measurements and clinical AD symptoms. (Did this become accepted? Sounds very useful)

"Alzheimer's Disease-Like Changes in Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Infected Cells: The Case for Antiviral Therapy" by Ruth F. Itzhaki and Matthew A. Wozniak. Investigates link between HSV1 infection in the brain and AD, with APOE variants acting as modulators, possibly due to competitive binding of HSV1 entry into cell.

"Cerebral Amyloid-Beta Protein Accumulation with Aging in Cotton-Top Tamarins: A Model of Early Alzheimer's Disease?" by Cynthia A. Lemere, Jiwon Oh, Heather A. Stanish, Ying Peng, Imelda Pepivani, Anne M. Fagan, Haruyasu Yamaguchi, Susan V. Westmoreland, and Keith G. Mansfield. Cotton-top tamarins have amyloid beta plaques.

"Long-Term Visual Object Recognition Memory in Aged Rats" by Daniela Platano, Patrizia Fattoretti, Marta Balietti, Carlo Bertoni-Freddari, and Giorgio Aicardi. They developed a long term (24 hours) memory test that old rats can perform. Supposedly, none was reported before. Interesting also that number of rat-turds is used as a measurement of anxiety.

"Synaptic Remodeling in Hippocampal CA1 Region of Aged Rats Correlates with Better Memory Performance in Passive Avoidance Test" by Daniela Platano, Patrizia Fattoretti, Marta Balietti, Belinda Giorgetti, Tiziana Casoli, Giuseppina Di Stefano, Carlo Bertoni-Freddari, and Giorgio Aicardi. Density of synapses and mitochondria was higher and mitochondrial volume was lower in the rat CA1 hippocampal region 9 hours compared to 6 hours after a memory training exercise in rats that learnt well.

"Immunological Approaches for Amyloid-beta Clearance Toward Treatment for Alzheimer's Disease" by Beka Solomon. Seems to be a review of vaccines against amyloid-beta, but hard to tell.

"A Highly Sensitive Diagnostic Assay for Aggregate-Related Diseases, Including Prion Diseases and Alzheimer's Disease" by Eva Birkmann, Franziska Henke, Susanne Aileen Funke, Oliver Bannach, Detlev Riesner, and Dieter Willbold. Another ultra-sensitive test of protein aggregates by the same group as the one above. This time using surface-fluorescence intensity distribution analysis (and again, no idea).

"Aggregation and Amyloid Fibril Formation of the Prion Protein Is Accelerated in the Presence of Glycogen" by Giannantonio Panza, Jan Stöhr, Eva Birkmann, Detlev Riesner, Dieter Willbold, Otto Baba, Tatsuo Terashima, and Christian Dumpitak. Prion and prion fibril formation is accelerated by the presence of glycogen.


Stem cells

"Characterizing Endothelial Cells Derived from the Murine Embryonic Stem Cell Line CCE" by Fardin Fathi, Abbas Jafari Kermani, Leila Pirmoradi, Seyed Javad Mowla, and Takayuki Asahara. Description of a process to generate endothelial cells from mice ESCs, and characterisation of the generated cells.

"Characterization and Genetic Manipulation of Human Umbilical Cord Vein Mesenchymal Stem Cells: Potential Application in Cell-Based Gene Therapy" by Abbas Jafari Kermani, Fardin Fathi, and Seyed Javad Mowla. Isolation and characterisation of gene expression and surface markers of human umbilical cord vein mesenchymal stem cells. They also electroporated green fluorescent protein and brain-derived neurotrophic factor genes in and got them expressed.


Mitochondria and Oxidative Damage

"Selective Decline of the Metabolic Competence of Oversized Synaptic Mitochondria in the Old Monkey Cerebellum" by Carlo Bertoni-Freddari, Marta Balietti, Belinda Giorgetti, Yessica Grossi, Tiziana Casoli, Giuseppina Di Stefano, Gemma Perretta, and Patrizia Fattoretti. Numeric density, volume density, average volume and average length of mitochondria in the cortex wasn't different between adult and old crab-eating macaques. What was different was the ratio of COX cytochemical precipitate to area of the mitochondrion, which declined, but only in large mitochondria. They take that ratio to be a proxy for mitochondrial metabolic competence.

"Oxidative Stress in Patients with Acute Heart Failure" by Jean-Christophe Charniot, Noëlle Vignat, Jean-Paul Albertini, Vera Bogdanova, Khaled Zerhouni, Jean-Jacques Monsuez, Alain Legrand, Jean-Yves Artigou, and Dominique Bonnefont-Rousselot. Ten people with dilated cardiomyopathy. Higher thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) and lower total antioxidant status (TAS), especially when they had arrythmias. Normal alpha-tocopherol, vitamin A and beta-carotene. TBARS and TAS returned to normal once patients returned to stable conditions.

"Anti-Inflammatory Senescence Actives 5203-L Molecule to Promote Healthy Aging and Prolongation of Lifespan" by Jean-François Bisson, Chantal Menut, and Patrizia d'Alessio. The monoterpene AISA 5203-L reverses replicative senescence of human vascular endothelial cells and mellows stress according to some tests. Focus seems to be on medium-stress inducing disease. Hippy vibe but maybe I'm misreading.

"Do Mitochondrial DNA and Metabolic Rate Complement Each Other in Determination of the Mammalian Maximum Longevity?" by Gilad Lehmann, Elena Segal, Khachik K. Muradian, and Vadim E. Fraifeld.  GC content of mtDNA together with resting metabolic rate can explain 77% of the variation in maximum lifespan in a study of 140 mammalian species. Maybe interesting.

"Zinc, Metallothioneins, Longevity: Effect of Zinc Supplementation on Antioxidant Response: A Zincage Study" by Eugenio Mocchegiani and The Zincage Consortium. Something about zinc, clusterin, PARP-1 MSR-A, methallothioneins and IL-6. Not sure what.


Immunosenescence

"Immunosenescence and Anti-Immunosenescence Therapies: The Case of Probiotics" by Giuseppina Candore, Carmela Rita Balistreri, Giuseppina Colonna-Romano, Maria Paola Grimaldi, Domenico Lio, Florinda Listi', Letizia Scola, Sonya Vasto, and Calogero Caruso. Possible strategies to defend against thymic involution, domination by memory T-cell and chronic inflammation through probiotics.

"B Cell Immunosenescence in the Elderly and in Centenarians" by Giuseppina Colonna-Romano, Matteo Bulati, Alessandra Aquino, Salvatore Vitello, Domenico Lio, Giuseppina Candore, and Calogero Caruso. B-cells in old people don't respond to new pathogens.


Intracellular Aggregates

"Can Lipofuscin Accumulation Be Prevented?" by Tino Kurz. Reducing intralysosomal iron reduces oxidative stress which could reduce lipofuscin formation. Wants to try pulse doses of iron chelators to see.

"Accumulating Insoluble Protein and Rate of Aging" by Anund Hallén. Thinks there's a link between the exponential form of the Gompertz law with the logarithmic space available to macromolecules in cells due to the formation of a polymer network in the cell which stops the macromolecules/colloids from moving through the cell.


Cell senescence

"Role of Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein-3 in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cell Senescence" by Christoph Muck, Lucia Micutkova, Werner Zwerschke, and Pidder Jansen-Durr. IGFBP-3 transfection induces apoptosis and senescence in HUVEC. Knockdown by shRNA doesn't revert that.

"Metallothionein Downregulation in Very Old Age: A Phenomenon Associated with Cellular Senescence?" by Marco Malavolta, Catia Cipriano, Laura Costarelli, Robertina Giacconi, Silvia Tesei, Elisa Muti, Francesco Piacenza, Sara Pierpaoli, Annis Larbi, Graham Pawelec, George Dedoussis, George Herbein, Daniela Monti, Jolanta Jajte, Lothar Rink, and Eugenio Mocchegiani. MT proteins decrease in the very old, independent of zinc intake. Age-dependent zinc changes also happen in CD4+ T cells in vitro and peripheral blood mononuclear cells ex-vivo. They follow this with a "thus" old age problems might be partially attributable to diminished cell proliferation, implying that the above is related to cell proliferation.

"Repeat Mild Heat Shock Increases Dermal Fibroblast Activity and Collagen Production" by Andrew E. Mayes and Caroline D. Holyoak. What the title says, in cells from a 12, 22 and 65 year olds.


Nutrient Sensing

"Relationship Between Calorie Restriction and the Biological Clock: Lessons from Long-Lived Transgenic Mice" by Oren Froy, Nava Chapnik, and Ruth Miskin. alpha-MUPA mice eat 20% less and live 20% longer. They have high amplitude, appropriately reset circadian rhythms in clock gene expression, and circadian behaviours. (I'm not sure what that means. That the sun resets the gene expression rhythm quickly?) They say that since CR resets circadian rhythm, maybe that's a mediator of the longevity extension.

"Enhancing Longevity: Novel Caloric Restriction Mimetics" by Alexander E. Michalow. No abstract. First page didn't get to the point.


Psychological, Political, and Social Context

"Zinc in Elderly People: Effects of Zinc Supplementation on Psychological Dimensions in Dependence of IL-6 -174 Polymorphism: A Zincage Study" by Fiorella Marcellini, Cinzia Giuli, Roberta Papa, Cristina Gagliardi, George Dedoussis, Daniela Monti, Jolanta Jajte, Robertina Giacconi, Marco Malavolta, and Eugenio Mocchegiani. Looked at zinc intake combined with 174-polymorphism in IL-6 in old people. Improved perceived stress but not results of mini-mental state examination or geriatric depression scale.

"Making the Political Case for Biogerontology Funding: A View from the Trenches" by Huber R. Warner.  Funding.


General

"Have We Reached the Point for In Vivo Rejuvenation?" by Amir Abramovich, Khachik K. Muradian, and Vadim E. Fraifeld. Wants to try de-differentiation and re-differentiation in vivo. Hints at iPSCs. Was waiting for this to pop up.

"Scientific Justification of Cryonics Practice" by Benjamin P. Best. Open access but not reading. I suspect I'm familiar with the arguments, don't need to be convinced.

"Youth Maintenance and Postponing Human Aging in Reality" by Ülo Kristjuhan. Nothing concrete in abstract (not intended), but vaguely how to accelerate the life extension currently happening.

"Role of Environmental and Genetic Factor Interaction in Age-Related Disease Development: The Gastric Cancer Paradigm" by Giusi Irma Forte, Cinzia Calà, Letizia Scola, Antonino Crivello, Arianna Gullo, Lorenzo Marasà, Antonio Giacalone, Celestino Bonura, Calogero Caruso, Domenico Lio, and Anna Giammanco. The 511T-variant of IL-1 beta is associated with an increased risk of chronic gastritis.

'“Accelerating Aging” Chemotherapy on Aged Animals: Protective Effect from Nutraceutical Modulation' by Francesco Marotta, Masatoshi Harada, Emilio Minelli, Suzanne K. Ono-Nita, and Paulo Marandola. Denshichi-Tochiu-Sen recovered macrophage chemotaxis, function and concentration and some other things on mice given chemotherapy.

"Muscular Metabolism in Aged Rats Under Exhaustive Exercise: Effect of a Modified Alkaline Supplementation" by Francesco Marotta, De Hua Chui, Aldo Lorenzetti, Flavia Fayet, Tsin Liu, and Paolo Marandola. They added modified alkalizing supplementation (MAS) to some rats running them to exhaustion. Exercise increased lactic acid and creatin-phosphokinase, and dropped muscle glycogen. MAS group had bigger succinate dehydrogenase and acetylcarinitine increases.

"Genetic Polymorphisms and Human Aging: Association Studies Deliver" by David Melzer. GWAS found polymorphisms in INK4a/INK4b and CDKN2a/b genes in p16/p15 locus linked with differences in physical function in old people. Later GWAS studying type 2 diabetes and MI confirms importance of this locus.

"Making SENSE: Strategies for Engineering Negligible Senescence Evolutionarily" by Michael R. Rose. Treat aging through evolutionary means. Rose-ish content.