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Welcome to the May edition of
The Abstract. It’s Women's Health Month—wishing a happy belated Mother’s Day to all moms and mother figures in the Elysium community. We’re celebrating with a full issue dedicated to new research on women’s health and longevity. The headline study is a very promising one: Researchers at Columbia released early human data showing a remarkable 20% slowing of ovarian aging with low and side-effect-free doses of rapamycin. This has implications for extending fertility, delaying menopause, and improving longevity. Also in this month’s newsletter: how cardiovascular fitness improves brain aging in women, the promise of hormone therapy for improving heart health, why women are more susceptible to Alzheimer’s disease, and a biological portrait of how pregnancy impacts the body.
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Rapamycin slows ovarian aging by 20%
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Video: Live mouse oocyte imaged with full-field optical coherence microscopy. Morawiec, S. et al., Commun Biol 7, 1057 (2024)
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Ovarian aging in women contributes to infertility—but it’s also a primary driver of overall aging through its negative impact on endocrine function. Early results from a study by researchers at Columbia University suggest that it’s possible to slow ovarian aging by 20% with low doses of the immunosuppressant rapamycin. The Validating Benefits of Rapamycin for Reproductive Aging Treatment (VIBRANT) study has 34 participants aged up to 35 and will eventually enroll 1,000 women.
While women typically lose about 50 eggs each month, a small dose of 5 mg per week of rapamycin reduced that number to 15. Study participants also reported improvements in their overall health, memory, hair, and nails, without any of the side-effects typically associated with the drug. Researchers believe that slowing ovarian aging will also delay menopause and offer longevity benefits.
“Ovarian function appears to protect against dementia and Alzheimer’s, heart disease, stroke, and even all-cause death,” said Yousin Suh, Ph.D., director of reproductive aging at Columbia University.
“The hope is that by slowing ovarian aging using a safe, inexpensive pill, we can extend women’s healthspan and lifespan.”
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The Expert’s Take:
“This research is remarkable and marks a paradigm shift in biomedical research for women. It is the very first in what needs to be many studies to solidify the idea that we can prolong ovarian function. What we can definitely take from the results so far is that keeping the endocrine function of ovaries intact with age is now within our grasp.”
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Jennifer Garrison, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, co-Founder and Director of the Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity and Equality, and a member of the Buck Center for Healthy Aging in Women
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THIS MONTH
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What We’re Reading
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These are third-party articles about science that we find interesting but have no relationship to Elysium or any of our products. Elysium’s products are not intended to screen, diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
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Cardiovascular endurance is linked to better brain aging in women
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Physical activity has long been associated with brain health, from mood to memory. A new study probed deeper into the relationship between cardiovascular endurance—measured by a 2-minute walk test—and brain aging. Researchers examined data from 1,691 adults across the adult lifespan (22–100 years) from the Human Connectome Project Young Adults and Aging. Across the whole sample, endurance was protective of the brain and associated with greater total white matter (WM), total gray matter (GM), and mean cortical thickness (MCT). Looking specifically at the loss of GM and MCT associated with age, however, endurance was protective for aging women but not for aging men, who still experienced age-related brain shrinkage. The results suggest that maintaining endurance is a promising cognitive longevity strategy for women. (Brain and Behavior)
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Hormone therapy can improve heart health after menopause
The evidence supporting hormone therapy for postmenopausal women continues to stack up. A new study led by researchers at Penn State examined data from hormone therapy clinical trials that were part of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI). They discovered that long-term, oral estrogen-based hormone therapy improved biomarkers of cardiovascular health—reducing LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and insulin resistance—while increasing HDL (“good”) cholesterol. Hormone therapy also lowered levels of lipoprotein(a), a genetic risk factor for heart attack and stroke.
“As a cardiologist, this finding is the most interesting aspect of this research,” said Matthew Nudy, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at the Penn State College of Medicine.
“Currently, there are no medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to lower lipoprotein(a).” (Penn State News)
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Women are twice as likely to get Alzheimer’s—and new research may help
Two-thirds of people globally with Alzheimer’s disease are women. The explanation to-date has been that women live longer than men, so they are at a greater risk of age-related diseases—but that’s beginning to change. Roberta Brinton, Ph.D., director of the Center for Innovation in Brain Science at the University of Arizona, is at the forefront of research investigating sex-based risk factors contributing to Alzheimer’s, with a focus on the connection between cognitive decline and menopause. Her research indicates that declining estrogen with menopause impairs glucose uptake in brain cells, causing these cells to switch energy sources to lipids. Their source: the brain’s own white matter. The brain consumes its own tissue, decreasing the volume of white matter and increasing the risk of Alzheimer’s, a process that starts when women are still in their 40s and 50s. Researchers are investigating several avenues for early intervention to lower the risk of future dementia, including addressing high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome, and using hormone-replacement therapy (HRT). (Nature Medicine)
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New data reveals true toll of pregnancy
Pregnancy is surprisingly poorly understood, making it difficult to improve the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of pregnancy complications. A new study by Israeli scientists aimed to help by creating a temporal portrait of physiological changes from 20 weeks preconception to 80 weeks postpartum. Researchers examined over 44 million lab test measurements from more than 300,000 pregnancies. The results showed specific dynamics: increases or decreases during pregnancy followed by slow postpartum recovery, or abrupt overshoots or undershoots at birth with a slow return to baseline in the postpartum period. The data also showed distinct signatures associated with three complicated pregnancy phenotypes—preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and postpartum hemorrhage—opening the door for preventative measures in the future. Finally, they found that more than half of the tests take three months to a year to return to baseline postpartum, pointing to the physiological load of childbirth and the importance of maternal health in the full year following birth. (Science Advances)
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TERM OF THE MONTH
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Menopause
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/ˈmen.ə.pɑːz/
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Menopause is the natural physiological process marking the end of a woman’s reproductive years, confirmed by not experiencing a menstrual cycle for 12 months. The biological process underlying menopause involves a decline of estrogen and progesterone production in the ovaries, which no longer produce eggs. The menopause transition may include symptoms such as changes in periods, hot flashes and night sweats, problems with sleep, and mood changes, among others. Most women begin the menopausal transition between ages 45 and 55; the average age of menopause in the U.S. is 52.
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AGING 101
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NAD+ and ovarian aging: Can it help with menopause?
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Ovarian aging (a gradual process of decreasing ovarian reserve, ending with menopause) is linked to declining levels of NAD+. Boosting NAD+ may help slow the process at the cellular level. (Read more)
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