npj agingPub Date : 2025-05-22DOI: 10.1038/s41514-025-00236-x
Ronan Bennett, Marco Morselli, Kseniya Petrova, Leonid Peshkin, Matteo Pellegrini
{"title":"An epigenetic clock for Xenopus tropicalis.","authors":"Ronan Bennett, Marco Morselli, Kseniya Petrova, Leonid Peshkin, Matteo Pellegrini","doi":"10.1038/s41514-025-00236-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41514-025-00236-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>DNA methylation clocks have been widely used for accurate age prediction, but most studies have been carried out on mammals. Here we present an epigenetic clock for the aquatic frog Xenopus tropicalis, a widely used model organism in developmental biology and genomics. To construct the clock, we collected DNA methylation data from 192 frogs using targeted bisulfite sequencing at genomic regions containing CpG sites previously shown to have age-associated methylation in Xenopus. We found highly positively and negatively age-correlated CpGs are enriched in heterochromatic regions marked with H4K20me3 and H3K9me3. Positively age-correlated CpGs are enriched in bivalent chromatin and gene bodies with H3K36me3, and tend to be proximal to lowly expressed genes. These epigenetic features of aging are similar to those found in mammals, suggesting evolutionary conservation of epigenetic aging mechanisms. Our clock enables future aging biology experiments that leverage the unique properties of amphibians.</p>","PeriodicalId":94160,"journal":{"name":"npj aging","volume":"11 1","pages":"38"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12098715/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144129831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj agingPub Date : 2025-05-19DOI: 10.1038/s41514-025-00229-w
Aleksey V Belikov, Angelo Talay, João Pedro de Magalhães
{"title":"Sex-specific insights into drug-induced lifespan extension and weight loss in mice.","authors":"Aleksey V Belikov, Angelo Talay, João Pedro de Magalhães","doi":"10.1038/s41514-025-00229-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41514-025-00229-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The DrugAge database serves as a comprehensive resource for studying compounds that increase lifespan in model organisms. In the latest version of DrugAge, we implemented multiple updates, predominantly focusing on mouse studies to enhance data accuracy and consistency. Key improvements include re-recording of mouse data from original sources, standardization of drug dosages to parts per million, and recording of administration routes, treatment initiation ages, and lifespans of controls. The user interface was also upgraded. Additionally, weight change data were included to address the potential impact of caloric restriction induced by drug administration on lifespan. Our analysis revealed significant correlations between weight loss and lifespan extension in male mice, particularly in studies conducted by the Interventions Testing Program, highlighting the importance of considering weight changes in lifespan studies. We also observed notable sex-related differences in lifespan and weight change responses, underscoring the need for sex-specific analyses in aging research.</p>","PeriodicalId":94160,"journal":{"name":"npj aging","volume":"11 1","pages":"37"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12089533/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144103447","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj agingPub Date : 2025-05-14DOI: 10.1038/s41514-025-00223-2
Helena Pham, Thomas Svensson, Ung-Il Chung, Akiko Kishi Svensson
{"title":"Bidirectional association between physical activity and sleep in healthy Japanese super-seniors: the Japan Healthy Aging Study (J-HAS).","authors":"Helena Pham, Thomas Svensson, Ung-Il Chung, Akiko Kishi Svensson","doi":"10.1038/s41514-025-00223-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41514-025-00223-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>To address the challenges of an ageing population, it is important to promote health by identifying factors for healthy ageing. The aim of this study was to investigate the bidirectional association between physical activity (PA) and sleep in healthy Japanese super-seniors over the age of 80. For approximately 1 year, 124 participants wore wearable devices and answered daily lifestyle questionnaires. PA was defined as daily step count and minutes in light activity. Sleep was measured using 24-h total sleep time (TST) and time in bed (TIB). Associations were analysed bidirectionally using multilevel mixed-effects linear regression models. Fully adjusted models revealed significant and inverse associations between sleep and PA from the same 24-h period. Similarly, the results were significant and inverse with PA from the day before as exposure and the next 24-h sleep measures as outcome. The between-individual associations between sleep measures and PA from the subsequent day were significant and inverse. However, there was a positive within-individual association between TST and step count from the subsequent day. The study suggests that associations between PA and sleep in super-seniors differ from patterns previously described in younger adults. Very old individuals with increasing 24-h total sleep time may compensate for a lower step count on one day by increasing their step count the following day.</p>","PeriodicalId":94160,"journal":{"name":"npj aging","volume":"11 1","pages":"36"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12078698/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144083057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj agingPub Date : 2025-05-10DOI: 10.1038/s41514-025-00227-y
Zeynep Elif Yesilyurt-Dirican, Ce Qi, Yi-Chian Wang, Annika Simm, Laura Deelen, Alia Hafiz Abbas Gasim, Fiona Lewis-McDougall, Georgina M Ellison-Hughes
{"title":"SGLT2 inhibitors as a novel senotherapeutic approach.","authors":"Zeynep Elif Yesilyurt-Dirican, Ce Qi, Yi-Chian Wang, Annika Simm, Laura Deelen, Alia Hafiz Abbas Gasim, Fiona Lewis-McDougall, Georgina M Ellison-Hughes","doi":"10.1038/s41514-025-00227-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41514-025-00227-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cellular senescence is the permanent cessation of cell proliferation and growth. Senescent cells accumulating in tissues and organs with aging contribute to many chronic diseases, mainly through the secretion of a pro-inflammatory senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Senotherapeutic (senolytic or senomorphic) strategies targeting senescent cells or/and their SASP are being developed to prolong healthy lifespan and treat age-related pathologies. Sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are a new class of anti-diabetic drugs that promote the renal excretion of glucose, resulting in lower blood glucose levels. Beyond their glucose-lowering effects, SGLT2 inhibitors have demonstrated protective effects against cardiovascular and renal events. Moreover, SGLT2 inhibitors have recently been associated with the inhibition of cell senescence, making them a promising therapeutic approach for targeting senescence and aging. This review examines the latest research on the senotherapeutic potential of SGLT2 inhibitors.</p>","PeriodicalId":94160,"journal":{"name":"npj aging","volume":"11 1","pages":"35"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12065912/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144059647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj agingPub Date : 2025-05-09DOI: 10.1038/s41514-025-00219-y
Elisabeth R M Heremans, Astrid Devulder, Pascal Borzée, Rik Vandenberghe, François-Laurent De Winter, Mathieu Vandenbulcke, Maarten Van Den Bossche, Bertien Buyse, Dries Testelmans, Wim Van Paesschen, Maarten De Vos
{"title":"Wearable sleep recording augmented by artificial intelligence for Alzheimer's disease screening.","authors":"Elisabeth R M Heremans, Astrid Devulder, Pascal Borzée, Rik Vandenberghe, François-Laurent De Winter, Mathieu Vandenbulcke, Maarten Van Den Bossche, Bertien Buyse, Dries Testelmans, Wim Van Paesschen, Maarten De Vos","doi":"10.1038/s41514-025-00219-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41514-025-00219-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The recent emergence of wearable devices will enable large scale remote brain monitoring. This study investigated whether multimodal wearable sleep recordings could help screening for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Measurements were acquired simultaneously from polysomnography and a wearable device, measuring electroencephalography (EEG) and accelerometry (ACM) in 67 elderly without cognitive symptoms and 35 AD patients. Sleep staging was performed using an AI model (SeqSleepNet), followed by feature extraction from hypnograms and physiological signals. Using these features, a multi-layer perceptron was trained for AD detection, with elastic net identifying key features. The wearable AD detection model achieved an accuracy of 0.90 (0.76 for prodromal AD). Single-channel EEG and ACM physiological features captured sufficient information for AD detection and outperformed the hypnogram features, highlighting these physiological features as promising discriminative markers for AD. We conclude that wearable sleep monitoring augmented by AI shows promise towards non-invasive screening for AD in the older population.</p>","PeriodicalId":94160,"journal":{"name":"npj aging","volume":"11 1","pages":"34"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12064732/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144061794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj agingPub Date : 2025-05-03DOI: 10.1038/s41514-025-00226-z
Amna A Othman, Kendall A Flaharty, Suzanna E Ledgister Hanchard, Ping Hu, Dat Duong, Rebekah L Waikel, Benjamin D Solomon
{"title":"Assessing large language model performance related to aging in genetic conditions.","authors":"Amna A Othman, Kendall A Flaharty, Suzanna E Ledgister Hanchard, Ping Hu, Dat Duong, Rebekah L Waikel, Benjamin D Solomon","doi":"10.1038/s41514-025-00226-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41514-025-00226-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Most genetic conditions are described in pediatric populations, leaving a gap in understanding their clinical progression and management in adulthood. Motivated by other applications of large language models (LLMs), we evaluated whether Llama-2-70b-chat (70b) and GPT-3.5 (GPT) could generate plausible medical vignettes, patient-geneticist dialogues and management plans for a hypothetical child and adult patients across 282 genetic conditions (selected by prevalence and categorized based on age-related characteristics). Results showed that LLMs provided appropriate age-based responses in both child and adult outputs based on Correctness and Completeness scores graded by clinicians. Sub-analysis of metabolic conditions including those typically presents neonatally with crisis also showed age-appropriate LLM responses. However 70b and GPT obtained low Correctness and Completeness scores at producing plausible management plans (55-66% for 70b and a wider range, 50-90%, for GPT). This suggests that LLMs still have some limitations in clinical applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":94160,"journal":{"name":"npj aging","volume":"11 1","pages":"33"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12049513/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144060028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj agingPub Date : 2025-05-03DOI: 10.1038/s41514-025-00225-0
Gesa Poetzsch, Luca Jelacic, Leon Dammer, Sören Lukas Hellmann, Michelle Balling, Miguel Andrade-Navarro, Aaron Avivi, Imad Shams, Anne Bicker, Thomas Hankeln
{"title":"Author Correction: Adaptation of the Spalax galili transcriptome to hypoxia may underlie the complex phenotype featuring longevity and cancer resistance.","authors":"Gesa Poetzsch, Luca Jelacic, Leon Dammer, Sören Lukas Hellmann, Michelle Balling, Miguel Andrade-Navarro, Aaron Avivi, Imad Shams, Anne Bicker, Thomas Hankeln","doi":"10.1038/s41514-025-00225-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41514-025-00225-0","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":94160,"journal":{"name":"npj aging","volume":"11 1","pages":"32"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12049517/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144036339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj agingPub Date : 2025-05-02DOI: 10.1038/s41514-025-00222-3
Xiuxing Liu, Yidan Liu, Yuehan Gao, Chun Zhang, Chenyang Gu, Jianjie Lv, Junying Wu, Wenru Su
{"title":"Single-cell profiling unveils a geroprotective role of Procyanidin C1 in hematopoietic immune system via senolytic and senomorphic effects.","authors":"Xiuxing Liu, Yidan Liu, Yuehan Gao, Chun Zhang, Chenyang Gu, Jianjie Lv, Junying Wu, Wenru Su","doi":"10.1038/s41514-025-00222-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41514-025-00222-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Aging of hematopoietic and immune system (HIS) leads to cellular senescence and immune dysregulation, contributing to age-related diseases. Here, we show that Procyanidin C1 (PCC1), a compound with both senolytic and senomorphic properties, can counteract aging-related changes in HIS. Using single-cell RNA sequencing and validation experiments, we found that aging induced cellular senescence, inflammation, and immune dysregulation in the bone marrow and spleen tissues of mice. Long-term PCC1 treatment improved key physiological parameters especially the grip strength of aged mice. Further single-cell analysis revealed PCC1's broad geroprotective effects on HIS, including an increase in the proportion of B cells (BCs) and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), suppression of senescence-associated markers, and restoration of normal immune processes. Specifically, PCC1 mitigated inflammation and restored immune homeostasis in BCs by suppressing Cebpb expression and age-associated BCs. Moreover, PCC1 reversed aging-induced alterations in HSCs through upregulating Nedd4 and CD62L-Ca2+ axis expression. Finally, we identified senescent cells (SnCs) using machine learning and gene set enrichment analysis, revealing that PCC1 induced apoptosis of SnCs and regulated their metabolic processes, particularly in granulocytes and myeloid cells. The experimental validation further confirmed the senolytic and senomorphic effects of PCC1 both in vivo and in vitro. Overall, PCC1 holds potential as a therapeutic agent for alleviating immune dysfunction and promoting healthy aging via senolytic and senomorphic effects.</p>","PeriodicalId":94160,"journal":{"name":"npj aging","volume":"11 1","pages":"31"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12048486/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144055506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj agingPub Date : 2025-04-26DOI: 10.1038/s41514-025-00205-4
Alexander Mörseburg, Yajie Zhao, Katherine A Kentistou, John R B Perry, Ken K Ong, Felix R Day
{"title":"Genetic determinants of proteomic aging.","authors":"Alexander Mörseburg, Yajie Zhao, Katherine A Kentistou, John R B Perry, Ken K Ong, Felix R Day","doi":"10.1038/s41514-025-00205-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41514-025-00205-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Changes in the proteome and its dysregulation have long been known to be a hallmark of aging. We derived a proteomic aging trait using data on 1459 plasma proteins from 44,435 UK Biobank individuals measured using an antibody-based assay. This metric is strongly associated with four age-related disease outcomes, even after adjusting for chronological age. Survival analysis showed that one-year older proteomic age, relative to chronological age, increases all-cause mortality hazard by 13 percent. We performed a genome-wide association analysis of proteomic age acceleration (proteomic aging trait minus chronological age) to identify its biological determinants. Proteomic age acceleration showed modest genetic correlations with four epigenetic clocks (R<sub>g</sub> = 0.17 to 0.19) and telomere length (R<sub>g</sub> = -0.2). Once we removed associations that were explained by a single pQTL, we were left with three signals mapping to BRCA1, POLR2A and TET2 with apparent widespread effects on plasma proteomic aging. Genetic variation at these three loci has been shown to affect other omics-related aging measures. Mendelian randomisation analyses showed causal effects of higher BMI and type 2 diabetes on faster proteomic age acceleration. This supports the idea that obesity and other features of metabolic syndrome have an adverse effect on the processes of human aging.</p>","PeriodicalId":94160,"journal":{"name":"npj aging","volume":"11 1","pages":"30"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12033249/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144060030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj agingPub Date : 2025-04-23DOI: 10.1038/s41514-025-00221-4
Sheng Fong, Kirill A Denisov, Anastasiia A Nefedova, Brian K Kennedy, Jan Gruber
{"title":"LinAge2: providing actionable insights and benchmarking with epigenetic clocks.","authors":"Sheng Fong, Kirill A Denisov, Anastasiia A Nefedova, Brian K Kennedy, Jan Gruber","doi":"10.1038/s41514-025-00221-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41514-025-00221-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Biological aging is marked by a decline in resilience at the cellular and systemic levels, driving an exponential increase in mortality risk. Here, we evaluate several clinical and epigenetic clocks for their ability to predict mortality, demonstrating that clocks trained on survival and functional aging outperform those trained on chronological age. We present an enhanced clinical clock that predicts mortality more accurately and provides actionable insights for guiding personalized interventions. These findings highlight the potential of mortality-predicting clocks to inform clinical decision-making and promote strategies for healthy longevity.</p>","PeriodicalId":94160,"journal":{"name":"npj aging","volume":"11 1","pages":"29"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12019333/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144059265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}