Day: 11/24/2016

Late Kids, Long Life? 

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Because if you are able to have kids later in life, you might be wired to live longer, too.

 
 Attention, 30-something single ladies: If you’re tired of people dropping not-so-subtle hints about having kids while you still have the eggs and energy, you can (probably, politely) tell them to back off.

A Boston University School of Medicine study found that women who can still give birth naturally after age 33 have a higher chance of living to extreme old age than those who had their last child before age 30. But the report, published in the online version of the journal Menopause in April 2014 doesn’t imply that putting off pregnancy will add years to your life. “If you physically delay having children, that’s not going to help with longevity, Paola Sebastiani, a Boston University biostatistics professor and study co-author, told OZY. A woman with a natural ability to have children later in life suggests that her body – including her reproductive system – just happens to age at a slow pace. Some women’s biological clocks simply tick more slowly than most.

WOMEN WHO HAD THEIR LAST CHILD AFTER 33 WERE TWICE AS LIKELYTO LIVE TO 95 OR OLDER, COMPARED WITH THOSE WHO HAD THEIR LAST CHILD BY 29.

Sebastiani and her colleagues analyzed data from the Long Life Family Study, a survey of 551 families, many of whose members lived to a ripe old age. They determined the ages at which 462 women had their last child and how long they ended up living. Turns out women who gave birth to their last child after 33 were twice as likely to live to 95 years or older, compared with those who had their last child by age 29.

The researchers suspect that the former group’s DNA might harbor genetic variants that slow aging and lower the risk for age-related diseases that can hamper fertility (like ovarian cancer or diabetes). Women with such variants could presumably bear children for a longer period of time, boosting their chances of passing these genes down to future generations — meaning we may have women to thank for the evolution of longevity genes. It could also explain why of the people who live to be 100 or older, 85% are women, compared to only 15% of men.

 Earlier studies have unearthed similar insights. Take the ongoing New England Centenarian Study, which found that women who had children after 40 were a whopping four times more likely to live to 100 than women who had their last child at a younger age.

Given the possible link between longevity and a longer fertility window, Sebastiani’s findings also suggest that researchers should further investigate the genetic influences of reproductive fitness, since they might also affect aging rates and vulnerability to age-related diseases. Sebastiani and her team have been working to identify the genetic variants that make some women age slower and plan to publish their results at the end of this year. Understanding the pathways they govern could help scientists develop drugs that produce the same effect.

So even if your biological clock is ticking, it might still be a while before its alarm goes off — depending on your genes.

World’s First Drag-and-drop Raspberry Pi And Arduino Project Builder

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Short Bytes: myDevices Cayenne is an Internet of Things project builder that makes it easy for anyone to create new things with Raspberry Pi and Arduino. The developers can visualize the sensor data and control the components of their hacker boards. 

MyDevices Cayenne is the world’s first drag and drop IoT project builder that lets the developers and makers quickly prototype their projects. Cayenne allows you to connect your sensors to your Pi and access them on your Cayenne dashboard. Working with Cayenne is a pretty simple process and the beginners don’t even need to write any code to get their project up and running.In this article, I’ll tell you how to get started with Cayenne and start making new things:

myDevices Cayenne makes Raspberry Pi more fun

To get started, the users need to visit Cayenne website and sign up. Creating an account from mobile or desktop is totally free. Just visit the Sign Up page and enter your email, name and choose a password.

The next step involves choosing a device. At the moment, Cayenne works with Raspberry Pi, Arduino LoRa devices. To get started, you need to select a device and move ahead.

mydevices-cyanne

Let’s suppose you’ve selected Raspberry Pi. Now you need to power on the Pi and connect it to the internet. Just in case you need to know how to get started with Raspberry Pi, you can read our beginner’s guide. You should also make sure that your Pi has the Raspbian operating system installed.

“Cayenne was designed to help users create IoT prototypes and bring them into production”
— myDevices

The next step involves installing Cayenne app on your mobile device. After doing so, the app will guide you through the process of installing Cayenne on your Raspberry Pi device.

You can also install myDevices Cayenne on your Pi using the Terminal. During the account setup, you’ll be shown two lines of command that you need to run in the Terminal.

After a few minutes, Cayenne app will be installed on your device. After the installation and reboot process is finished, the Cayenne dashboard will show the details of your device.

cyanne-mydevices-app
myDevices Cayenne app

Cayenne works with a variety of sensors for measuring temperature, luminosity, motion, generic, pressure/distance sensors. Here’s the complete list of supported sensors.

Cayenne also supported by Arduino

Back in August, myDevices entered into a partnership with Arduino. This allows the makers and developers to control Arduino components and visualize the sensor data.

As myDevices is more inclined towards drag and drop process, it’s an easy platform for beginners with no coding experience. You can find more information about myDevices Cayenne on their website.

 

First Successful Gene Therapy Against Human Aging? It May Be So

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IN BRIEF

Should these results prove to be accurate, it means that scientists have actually managed to create a way to reverse aging.

MEET ELIZABETH PARRISH

The CEO of Bioviva USA Inc, Elizabeth Parrish, claims to be the first human in world history to have successfully reversed the effects of natural aging—thanks to experimental gene therapy provided by her company.

Parrish first underwent gene therapy in 2015—one designed to protect against muscle mass depletion that is inherent to aging and another to fight stem cell depletion due to age-related diseases.

Originally meant to prove that her company’s gene therapy was safe, the results—should they prove to be effective in the long-term and withstand due scientific scrutiny—would be the very first successful demonstration of telomere lengthening in any human.

“Current therapeutics offer only marginal benefits for people suffering from diseases of aging. Additionally, lifestyle modification has limited impact for treating these diseases. Advances in biotechnology is the best solution, and if these results are anywhere near accurate, we’ve made history,” Parrish notes.

To that end, even Parrish is clear that more investigation is necessary in order to verify the methods; however, if verified, this work will be revolutionary.

BioViva aims to provide regenerative medicine to the masses through gene and cell therapies.
BioViva aims to provide regenerative medicine to the masses through gene and cell therapies.

TELOMERES: HOW THEY WORK

Telomeres are short segments of DNA that are found on the ends of each chromosome. These act as “buffers” for the wear and tear of natural aging. But with sustained cell division, telomeres eventually get too short to protect the chromosome. When this happens, it causes the call to malfunction and leads to aging.

The basis for the success of Parrish’s gene therapy is related to the telomere scores—which are calculated based on the telomere length in white blood cells (T-lymphocytes). Higher telomere scores indicate “younger cells.” Compared to average T-lymphocytes of the American population within the same age range, 44 year old Parrish claims that the gene therapies she underwent worked and showed that it reversed 20 years of telomere shortening.

As stated, it’s important to note that the results have yet to be verified by an independent source (which is really what science is all about). And Bioviva is still carefully monitoring Parrish’s blood and will continue to do so in the coming months, and even years, to ensure that the success it has seen in leukocytes can translate to the body’s other tissues and organs; or simply if the effects can be safely replicated in other human patients.

Antiobesity Drugs In Nanoparticles Target Fat Cells Like Missiles

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IN BRIEF

Researchers have a new way to deliver antiobesity drugs to specific locations of the body by using nanoparticles, effectively stimulating weight loss without any harmful side effects.

OLD DRUG, NEW METHOD

Researchers from MIT, Brigham, and Women’s Hospital have recently tested a new way to stimulate fat loss through a pair antiobesity drugs. In this novel method, they made use of nanoparticles to deliver them to specific areas of the body.

The drugs transform white adipose tissue (which consists of fat-storing cells) to brown ones (which burn fat) and then promote a process called angiogenesis, where blood vessels grow in the fatty tissue and speed up the previous transformation process.

The study was done on obese mice, which, after 25 days, had lost 10% of their body weight, and had become less likely to be affected by diabetes. Best of it all? They did not show signs of adverse effects.

That said, these chemicals are not FDA approved to treat obesity, as clinical trials in humans have yet to take place.

The stimulated growth of blood vessels (top), and the nanoparticles used (bottom). 

TARGET LOCKED

The researchers assert that none of these drugs are new or recently developed. Indeed, the real magic here isn’t in the drugs, but in the technology behind the drugs’ delivery: The nanoparticles.

These molecules are made up primarily of PLGA, a polymer widely used in drug delivery in medicine. On its outer shell is another polymer called PEG, designed to specifically target the proteins in the blood vessels that surround the adipose tissues, pretty much just like guided missiles.

The whole process becomes more and more effective as the previously mentioned process, angiogenesis, increases the growth of these targeted blood vessels.

However, angiogenesis can be very harmful, more so when it is made to happen all over the body. Nonetheless, this method greatly reduces that risk since only specific areas of the body are affected, and the results showed that the mice aren’t suffering at all.

The only real hurdle behind this method is that currently, the researches had to intravenously inject the substances into the specific areas. Nonetheless, they are already looking into easier ways such as ingesting the molecules.

Jet lag increases risk of liver cancer, new study suggests

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Sleeping at airport
Chronic jet lag alters the body’s natural rhythms 

Frequent long-haul flyers are exacerbating their risk of developing liver cancer, new research suggests.

A trial found that chronic jet lag disrupted the metabolic rhythms of the liver leading to dangerous buildups of fat and bile acid, factors known to heighten the risk of cancer.

Rates of those dying from the disease have tripled since the 1970s, and only around 10 per cent of those diagnosed survive beyond five years, according to Cancer Research UK.

 Around 6,000 people in Britain are currently diagnosed with the condition each year.

Published in the journal Cancer Cell, the new trial used light to control the sleep patterns of mice, thereby simulating the disruption to human body rhythms caused by regularly crossing multiple time zones.

The scientists at Baylor College of Medicine found that the mice gained weight, developed fatty liver disease which progressed to chronic inflammation and, in some cases, liver cancer.

David Moore, professor of molecular and cellular biology, said: “Liver cancer is on the rise worldwide and in human studies we’ve now seen that patients can progress from fatty liver diseases to liver cancer without any middle steps such as cirrhosis.”

Previous studies have inferred an increased risk of various cancers from irregular working and, in particular, night shift working.