Longevity Daily: 21st August, 2020

Everyday our team of researchers in Oxford are inundated with scientific, and medical research articles that have the potential to improve health, wellbeing, and longevity. In this blog we highlight a few of them that caught our attention today.

1. Why does the risk of cancer increase as we age?
   • Why is this important: According to Cancer Research UK, and the American Cancer Society one in two people will develop cancer at some point in their lives. People over the age of 60 are 10-times more likely to get cancer than people younger than 60 years of age. Indeed, cancer is one the most devastating diseases of aging. If we could detect cancer early we may be able to treat it effectively, and significantly reduce the mortality rate.
   • What did the researchers do: In a recent publications researchers from Cornell University in New York analysed the blood serum of people over the age of 60, and compared it to blood serum from people under the age of 30. They found that older people have high levels of that methylmalonic acid (MMA) — a by-product of protein and fat digestion.
   • Key takeaway(s): The researchers found that methylmalonic acid (MMA), which is found in high levels in people 60-year and older, accelerated the growth, development, and spread of cancerous cells. The researchers also found that in the presence of MMA the cancer promoting gene SOX4 becomes highly active.
     
     
2. Can our gut microbiome impact our cancer treatment outcomes?
   • Why is this important: Cancer is a deadly disease, and as we have learned from the previous post the chances of us getting cancer increase as we get older. Our gut microbiome consists of bacteria, and viruses, and together they are responsible for extracting nutrients the food that we eat, and maintaining our gut health. Over the last two decades we have learnt that our microbiome can have major impact on several diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, autoimmunity, and cancer.
   • What did the researchers do: In this study published earlier this week researchers from California and Arizona collected microbiome, and cancer treatment health outcome data from 31 cancer patients. These patients were suffering from kidney cancer that had spread to other parts of their body, and they were treated for upto 12 weeks.
   • Key takeaway(s): During the study the researchers were able to identify changes in the microbiome over time in kidney cancer patients receiving immunotherapy treatment. They found that the patients who had the greatest variety of gut microorganism were more likely to receive benefit from their cancer immunotherapy treatment. The researchers think that this finding may encourage cancer doctors to prescribe foods that increase patient’s gut microbiome variety, such as high-fiber diet, and vegetables rich in complex carbohydrates.
     
     
3. Telomerase gene therapy successful as treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), in mice
   • Why is this important: IPF is a disease that results in the scarring of lung tissue, damaging the ability of victims to breathe. IPF affects almost 3 million people globally, with a median time from diagnosis to death as 2-4 years. The biggest factor in IPF is age.
   • What did the researchers do: Mice were treated with AAV9-Tert, telomerase activation gene therapy, or a control injection, to determine if the gene therapy is an effective treatment for IPF. The researchers found that mice treated with AAV9-Tert showed significantly increased levels of ATII and club cells, indicating rejuvenation of the lung tissue. Biomarkers for DNA damage, senescence and the impairment of surfactant activity were also decreased in mice with the gene therapy.
   • Key takeaway(s): This study demonstrates that telomerase activation gene therapy effectively prevents the degeneration of lung tissue associated with physiological ageing in mice. This furthers our understanding of the interaction of telomere length with disease, and reinforces the case for TERT as a potential therapeutic target for IPF in the future.
     
     
4. A novel biomarker of MMP-cleaved prolargin is elevated in patients with psoriatic arthritis
   • Why is this important: Psoriatic arthritis is a long-term inflammatory arthritis that occurs in people affected by the autoimmune disease psoriasis. The exact causes are still unknown, but a number of genetic associations have been identified and no specific diagnostic test is available for confirming the malady. Psoriatic arthritis gets significantly worse with time, but early intervention and treatment can slow down the disease onset and bone damage.
   • What did the researchers do: In this study, they produced monoclonal antibodies to conduct novel ELISA test detecting a MMP-generated prolargin fragment
   • Key takeaway(s): Novel assay was robust and specific to a target sequence.
     The prolargin fragment was present in blood serum and plasma
     The fragment was upregulated in patients affected by psoriatic arthritis compared to a control group
     
     
     

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