Scientists reverse brain aging, with a nasal spray

(stories.tamu.edu)

134 points | by cybermango 2 hours ago ago

48 comments

  • gavinray an hour ago

    "Reverse brain aging", sure, in the same sense that taking Vitamin C reverses aging.

    The nasal spray reduced markers of inflammation in hippocampal microglial cells.

    A lot of things reduce inflammation. That is not "reversing ageing".

    Of course, "reduces inflammation" doesn't headline very well...

    • fragmede 42 minutes ago

      Tell that to Bryan Johnson.

    • mawadev an hour ago

      The article is also heavily ai generated, I call bs on every single bit

      • scrubs an hour ago

        AI generated? Not demonstrated.

        Whining by humans claiming AI? Predictable. Probable. Indeed LLM "complete the sentence" predictable.

      • bigmattystyles an hour ago

        I thought the url said temu at first.

      • rylando an hour ago

        Kinda surprised A&M’s letting them use AI to write these things

      • dwa3592 an hour ago

        >>The article is also heavily ai generated

        can you please share your methodology for detecting ai please?

        • TonyAlicea10 37 minutes ago

          “The most surprising part? It all happened within weeks and lasted for months.”

          That’s an AI tell. It may not be entirely LLM-generated, the various direct quotations help a lot, but there are touches that definitely feel like an LLM had a hand here.

        • asdf88990 an hour ago

          Vibes. It is in the vibes.

          • anonym29 36 minutes ago

            Just a heads up, you're firmly in Poe's Law territory.

            • hyperhello 28 minutes ago

              Poe’s Law is the very essence of AI.

      • dwa3592 an hour ago

        c'mon you guys, chill. this is not a vaccine.

  • SubiculumCode an hour ago

    High impact journal for an interesting study that is admittedly largely out of my area of expertise. The limitation of it being done in animal models, is of course, noted, but also expected. The question I would ask is how well the underlying background research makes this outcome expected.

    • jskeicjwkxjwkd an hour ago

      Damn, that’s one hell of a way to say “is this any good though?”. Too many words for such a simple question.

      • SubiculumCode an hour ago

        Pretty much, lol. I started to say some other things but decided to say less.

  • earth-tattoo 2 hours ago

    That's exactly what I want: immortal mice!

    • ghurtado an hour ago

      That's a surprisingly underused plot for a sci Fi horror film.

      Considering the grand total of experiments we've ran on the little guys, I'm kinda surprised we haven't bred Mousezilla yet

      • bookofjoe 16 minutes ago

        See also: “Flowers for Algernon”

      • bitwize an hour ago

        Or Pinky & the Brain

    • dlcarrier an hour ago

      You joke, but rodents make great pets, because they are very social and have a range of personalities, but most only live a few years. I knew someone with a pet retired lab rat, and it lived much longer than the average fancy rat, but even then, it didn't even live half as long as the average cat or dog.

      If we could breed or treat rodents to live longer, we could keep low-resource pets without as much loss.

  • block_dagger an hour ago

    Flowers for Algernon’s Brain

    • wingmanjd 24 minutes ago

      This short story was scarier to me as a kid than anything else I read at the time.

      • bookofjoe 13 minutes ago

        The movie adaptation — “Charlie” — is heartbreakingly good.

  • catlifeonmars an hour ago

    TFA reeks of over-sensationalizing. Here is a summary sans hyperbole:

    Intranasal Human NSC-Derived EVs Therapy Can Restrain Inflammatory Microglial Transcriptome, and NLRP3 and cGAS-STING Signalling, in Aged Hippocampus[1].

    Abstract:

    > Neuroinflammaging, a moderate, chronic, and sterile inflammation in the hippocampus, contributes to age-related cognitive decline. Neuroinflammaging comprises the activation of the nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich repeat family, and pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasomes, and the cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS)-stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway that triggers type 1 interferon (IFN-1) signalling. Studies have shown that extracellular vesicles from human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neural stem cells (hiPSC-NSC-EVs) contain therapeutic miRNAs that can alleviate neuroinflammation. Therefore, this study examined the effects of late middle-aged (18-month-old) male and female C57BL6/J mice receiving two intranasal doses of hiPSC-NSC-EVs on neuroinflammaging in the hippocampus at 20.5 months of age. Compared with animals receiving vehicle treatment, the hippocampus of animals receiving hiPSC-NSC-EVs exhibited reductions in astrocyte hypertrophy, microglial clusters, and oxidative stress, along with elevated expression of antioxidant proteins and genes that maintain mitochondrial respiratory chain integrity. Moreover, hiPSC-NSC-EVs therapy decreased the levels of various proteins involved in the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, p38/mitogen-activated protein kinase, cGAS-STING-IFN-1, and Janus kinase and signal transducer and activator of transcription signalling pathways. Furthermore, in vitro assays using genetically engineered RAW cells and hiPSC-NSC-EVs, with or without targeted depletion of specific miRNAs, demonstrated that miRNA-30e-3p and miRNA-181a-5p, both present in hiPSC-NSC-EVs, can significantly inhibit the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome and the STING pathway, respectively. Additionally, single-cell RNA sequencing conducted 7 days post-treatment revealed that hiPSC-NSC-EVs induce widespread transcriptomic changes in microglia, including increased expression of numerous genes that enhance oxidative phosphorylation and reduced expression of abundant genes that drive multiple proinflammatory signalling pathways. These changes mediated by hiPSC-NSC-EVs were also associated with improved cognitive and memory function. Thus, intranasal hiPSC-NSC-EVs therapy in late middle age can effectively diminish proinflammatory microglial transcriptome and signalling cascades that drive neuroinflammaging in the hippocampus, contributing to better brain function in old age.

    [1]: https://isevjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jev...

  • timmg an hour ago

    How soon until biohackers try this on themselves?

  • hoppp an hour ago

    I take N-acetylcysteine and it helps with brain fog also! Plus it reduces stress and irritability.

    • ai_fry_ur_brain 17 minutes ago

      And OCD symptoms, and many also benefit from better impulse control. Its more effective than SSRIs for some.

      NAC is one of the only known treatments for trichotillomania, a under discussed but common condition that causes people to uncontrollably pull their hair out.

      NAC has also been studied to reduce nicotine and alchohol cravings as well.

  • general_reveal an hour ago

    When can I snort this?

    • grg0 a minute ago

      I knew cocaine had to have an upside.

    • hoppp an hour ago

      Prepare a line for me also please

  • Joel_Mckay 22 minutes ago

    Many Brain-aging study sample pools are from young folks that died in accidents, aged homeless alcoholics, and individuals that were in declining health.

    Most cultures find it taboo to donate their beloved family members bodies for scientific dissection. Thus, people get ingrained "[bigotry] with extra steps" similar to phrenology proponents.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox

    "Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance" =3

  • amingilani 2 hours ago

    ...in mice.

    > Therefore, this study examined the effects of late middle-aged (18-month-old) male and female C57BL6/J mice receiving two intranasal doses of hiPSC-NSC-EVs on neuroinflammaging in the hippocampus at 20.5 months of age.

    https://isevjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jev...

    • switchbak 2 hours ago

      That PR piece was brutal to navigate. Undoubtedly punched up by AI, it took far too long to even understand what the treatment entailed.

    • doginasuit 2 hours ago

      To be fair though, I think we owe the mice a positive research outcome.

      • antonvs 2 hours ago

        “Congratulations, you get improved brain function while we continue to run other experiments on you!”

        • ghurtado an hour ago

          You can now experience both physical pain and existential dread!

          • tryagainian an hour ago

            On the plus side, expect to see great works of literature authored by rodents.

        • earthnail 2 hours ago

          “There will be cake!”

    • SubiculumCode an hour ago

      The link to the actual paper was appreciated. The context of whether findings will generalize outside of mouse models can depend a lot on specifics of the problem.

  • keepamovin an hour ago

    Ugh, I thought we were done with the Boomers....looks like they're gonna hang on.

  • fuckinpuppers 2 hours ago

    Mice get all the cool shit first