Genetic Protection Against AD

 

EurekAlert has this news item about a study on the genetic variant which protects the brain from AD.

A sample from the news item:

The researchers discovered the protective variant in people who never developed symptoms but who had inherited the e4 form of the APOE gene, which significantly increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. 

“These resilient people can tell us a lot about the disease and what genetic and non-genetic factors might provide protection,” says study co-leader Badri N. Vardarajan, PhD, assistant professor of neurological science (in neurology, the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center, and the Taub Institute), who is an expert in using computational approaches to discover Alzheimer’s disease genes. 

"We hypothesized that these resilient people may have genetic variants that protect them from APOEe4.” 

To find protective mutations, the Columbia researchers sequenced the genomes of several hundred APOEe4 carriers over age 70 of various ethnic backgrounds, including those with and without Alzheimer's disease. Many participants were residents of Northern Manhattan who were enrolled in the Washington Heights/Inwood Columbia Aging Project, an ongoing study that has been conducted by Columbia University’s Department of Neurology for more than 30 years.

Cheers, 

Colin

Loneliness and the Brain

Nature news has this interesting piece on the impact of loneliness on human health.  A sample from the article:

The COVID-19 pandemic might ["editorial snark:  ya think!"] have exacerbated loneliness by forcing people to isolate for months or years, although “that data is still emerging”, Kotwal says. Older adults have long been thought of as the demographic most heavily affected by loneliness, and indeed it is a major problem faced by many of the older people that Kotwal works with. But the Cigna Group’s data suggest that loneliness is actually highest in young adults — 79% of those between the ages of 18 and 24 reported feeling lonely, compared with 41% of people aged 66 and older.

Historically, staying close to others was probably a good survival strategy for humans. That’s why scientists think that temporary loneliness evolved — to motivate people to seek company, just as hunger and thirst evolved to motivate people to seek food and water.

In fact, the similarities between hunger and loneliness go right down to the physiological level. In a 2020 study, researchers deprived people of either food or social connections for ten hours. They then used brain imaging to identify areas that were activated by images of either food — such as a heaping plate of pasta — or social interactions, such as friends laughing together. Some of the activated regions were unique to images either of food or of people socializing, but a region in the midbrain known as the substantia nigra lit up when hungry people saw pictures of food and when people who felt lonely saw pictures of social interactions6. That’s “a key region for motivation — it’s known to be active whenever we want something”, says Tomova, who is an author on the study.

Cheers 

Colin

Winter term winding down

The 2023/24 academic teaching year is winding down this coming week.  I taught 4 courses this year, servicing approximately 580 students.  This year is actually year 25 of my academic career, and I have to say that teaching remains a joy and real privilege for me.  In fact, I have volunteered to teach a 4 week online course on the ethics of biomedical enhancement this summer for the Faculty of Education.

My forthcoming textbook on the history of Western political thought is in the final production stages.  I expect to get the proofs in a few weeks.  And I have a series of papers on the ethics of translational gerontology in the works.  So I am keeping busy on the research front. 

As the warmer weather of spring arrives my thoughts always shift towards:

(a) outdoor cooking (I will get my coveted "Green Egg" fired up hopefully this week); 

(b) more time playing sports outside (my beach volleyball league starts in May); and 

(c) outdoor gardening.   

Last year the garden suffered as I did not return from sabbatical until late June, which was too late to get a decent harvest.  So this year I aspire to make a more serious go of growing a variety of vegetables and herbs. 

So many things to do and contemplate, so little time!  Such is the predicament of life I suppose.

Cheers, 

Colin

   

Political Theory and Open-Minded Thinking

An interesting study in Cognition which examines how explaining contentious political issues can promote open-minded thinking.  The abstract:

Cognitive scientists suggest that inviting people to explain contentious political issues might reduce intergroup toxicity because it exposes people to how poorly they understand the issue. However, whether providing explanations can result in more open-minded political thinking remains unclear. On one hand, inviting people to explain a political issue might make them more impartial and open-minded in their thinking. On the other hand, an invitation to explain a contentious political issue might lead to myside bias—rationalization of one's default position. Here, we address these contrasting predictions in five experiments (N = 1884; three pre-registered), conducted across a variety of contexts: with graduate students interacting with an actor in a laboratory setting, with US residents at the peak of the 2012 and 2016 U.S. presidential elections, with UK residents before the highly polarized 2019 Brexit vote, and with gun-control partisans. Across studies, we found that explaining politically contentious topics resulted in more open-minded thinking, an effect that generalized across coded (Studies 1–4) and self-report (Studies 3–4) measures. We also observed that participants who were made to feel like their explanations were welcomed felt closer to their discussion partner (Studies 3–4), an effect that generalized to all outgroup members with whom they disagreed with about the politically contentious issue (Study 4). We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings, and the potential for explanations to foster open-minded political engagement.

I believe this kind of empirical research has significance for how and why we teach political theory.

Cheers, 

Colin 

Parental age at death and age at first birth

Interesting study published in Experimental Gerontology which examines the age of death for parents and the age they had their first offspring.  

The abstract:

People age at different rates and the available evidence suggests that the rate of aging is partly inherited from previous generations. This heterogeneity in aging is evident already in midlife, but to what extent aging is associated with the timing of events earlier in life is not fully known. Here we aim to shed light on this topic by investigating the trade-off between reproduction and aging postulated by evolutionary theories of aging.

Cheers, 

Colin 

Geroscience in Canada

The proceedings of Canada's first geroscience summit are now published in The Journals of Gerontology. Having the opportunity to collaborate with 32 scientists at this important event was a real pleasure and learning experience for me. The abstract:

The inaugural Canadian Conferences on Translational Geroscience were held as two complementary sessions in October and November 2023. The conferences explored the profound interplay between the biology of aging, social determinants of health, the potential societal impact of geroscience and the maintenance of health in aging individuals. Although topics such as cellular senescence, molecular and genetic determinants of aging and prevention of chronic disease were addressed, the conferences went on to emphasize practical applications for enhancing older people's quality of life. This manuscript summarizes the proceeding and underscores the synergy between clinical and fundamental studies. Future directions highlight national and global collaborations and the crucial integration of early-career investigators. This work charts a course for a national framework for continued innovation and advancement in translational geroscience in Canada.

My passion and interest in the social and ethical implications of this area of science continues to grow, with many new projects in the works to keep me busy writing for the foreseeable future.

Cheers, 

Colin 

Online version of inaugural Peacock lecture

Cheers, 

Colin