PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Poor vascular health accelerates brain ageing

2024-12-20
(Press-News.org) Using an AI tool, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have analysed brain images from 70-year-olds and estimated their brains’ biological age. They found that factors detrimental to vascular health, such as inflammation and high glucose levels, are associated with an older-looking brain, while healthy lifestyles were linked to brains with a younger appearance. The results are presented in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

Every year, over 20,000 people in Sweden develop some form of dementia, with Alzheimer’s disease accounting for approximately two-thirds of cases. However, the speed at which the brain ages is affected by various risk and health factors.

“Despite the recent introduction of new Alzheimer’s drugs, they will not work for everyone with dementia, so we want to study what can boost the brain’s resilience against pathological ageing processes” says the study’s lead author Anna Marseglia, researcher at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet.

AI-derived brain age

The study involved 739 cognitively healthy 70-year-olds, 389 of whom were female, recruited from Gothenburg’s H70 cohort in Sweden. The researchers took MRI scans of their brains and then estimated the age of the resulting brain images using their own AI-based algorithm.

“The algorithm is both accurate and robust, yet easy to use,” says principal investigator Eric Westman, professor of Neurogeriatrics at the same department. “It’s a research tool that still needs further evaluation, but our aim is for it also to be of clinical use in the future, such as in dementia investigations.”

The brain images were complemented with blood samples for measuring lipids, glucose, and inflammation. The participants also carried out cognitive testing. Data on lifestyle factors such as exercise and medical conditions were also available.

Brains with an older appearance

The AI tool estimated the brain age for both sexes to be on average 71 years. The researchers then looked at the ”brain age gap” by subtracting the participants' estimated biological brain age from their chronological age.

The researchers found that diabetes, stroke, cerebral small vessel disease, and inflammation were linked to brains with an older appearance, whereas a healthy lifestyle involving regular exercise could be linked to brains of a younger appearance.

“A take-home from the study is that factors that adversely affect the blood vessels can also be related to older-looking brains, which shows how important it is to keep your blood vessels healthy, to protect your brain, by making sure, for instance, that your blood glucose level is kept stable,” says Anna Marseglia.

Studies of sex differences next

The brains of women and men seem to differ in terms of factors linked to older- and younger-looking brains, meaning that women and men may differ in how they build resilience, a phenomenon that the researchers now plan to investigate by looking not only at biological determinants such as hormones but also at sociocultural influences.

“Next year, we’ll launch a study to understand how social health – including social engagement, connectedness, and support – in middle and older age, along with sleep and stress, influence brain resilience, with a focus on women’s health factors,” says Anna Marseglia.

The study was primarily supported by grants from the Centre for Innovative Medicine, Forte, the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Brain Foundation, the Swedish Alzheimer’s Foundation, the Swedish Dementia Foundations, the David and Astrid Hagelén Foundation, StratNeuro, the Foundation for Geriatric Diseases at Karolinska Institutet, the Loo and Hans Osterman Foundation for Medical Research, the Gamla Tjänarinnor Foundation and the Collaboratory on Research Definitions for Reserve and Resilience in Cognitive Aging and Dementia. No researcher from Karolinska Institutet has reported a conflict of interest, while co-author Silke Kern has declared ties with Roche, Geras Solutions, Optoceutics, Eli Lilly, Biogen and Bioarctic.

Publication: ”Biological brain age and resilience in cognitively unimpaired 70-year-old individuals”, Anna Marseglia, Caroline Dartora, Jessica Samuelsson, Konstantinos Poulakis, Rosaleena Mohanty, Sara Shams, Olof Lindberg, Lina Rydén, Therese Rydberg Sterner, Johan Skoog, Anna Zettergren, Silke Kern, Ingmar Skoog and Eric Westman, Alzheimer's & Dementia, online 20 December 2024. doi: 10.1002/alz.14435.

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Chinese Medical Journal review provides insights into respiratory syncytial virus

Chinese Medical Journal review provides insights into respiratory syncytial virus
2024-12-20
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of respiratory infections, particularly in infants, children under 5 years, and older adults. Its rapid spread makes RSV a serious public health concern. Currently, there are no effective medications for RSV, and current treatment focuses on providing supportive care and preventing its spread. In a recent study, authors from the Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Nanjing Medical University, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention of the Chinese Center ...

Growing safer spuds: removing toxins from potatoes

Growing safer spuds: removing toxins from potatoes
2024-12-20
Scientists have discovered a way to remove toxic compounds from potatoes, making them safer to eat and easier to store. The breakthrough could cut food waste and enhance crop farming in space and other extreme environments. Potato plants naturally produce chemicals that protect them from insects. The chemicals, called steroidal glycoalkaloids, or SGAs, are found in high quantities in the green parts of potato peels, and in the sprouting areas. They render the potatoes unsafe for insects as well as humans.  "These compounds are critical for plants to ward off insects, but they ...

Russia-Ukraine War’s unexpected casualties: Hungry people in distant nations

2024-12-20
The war in Ukraine is causing hunger thousands of miles from the battlefields, according to a study released today. Nearly three years of war in the “breadbasket of the world” has left croplands destroyed and forced laborers who grow, harvest and process a bounty of wheat, barley and oats to flee. Combined with export bans from other countries, ripple effects resonated through global trade and upended food supply systems. But understanding how far those disruptions reached, who suffered and who gained has been difficult. Researchers at Michigan State University’s Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS) lead a unique effort, relying ...

York U professor’s new paper challenges tokenizing women of colour in academia

2024-12-20
TORONTO, December 20, 2024 — The unspoken rule for women of colour in academia is to be everything to everyone – mentor, diversity champion, tireless scholar, and silent workhorse, says York University equity studies Assistant Professor Yvonne Su in her recent paper published today in Nature Human Behaviour. “We are expected to carry the banner of inclusion, but we are not truly included. Inclusion, as it’s currently defined, is about optics, not transformation,” observes Su in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies. “It’s about showing diversity on the surface ...

Tiny antennas on cells offer new ALS insights

Tiny antennas on cells offer new ALS insights
2024-12-20
Leuven, 20 December 2024- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease that affects motor neurons. The average life span after diagnosis of this incurable disease is two to five years. In the relentless pursuit of understanding the cause of motor neuron death, scientists from KU Leuven and the VIB Center for Brain and Disease Research have identified an intriguing new lead: tiny, antenna-like structures 0n cells called primary cilia. Their study, published in Brain, could open a potential new avenue for therapeutic development. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s ...

Geothermal aquifers offer green potential but quality checks required

Geothermal aquifers offer green potential but quality checks required
2024-12-20
The aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) system, which uses geothermal heat as a renewable energy source, is one of the solutions to reducing fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emission. This system stores heat underground in aquifers, using groundwater as a heat medium. The heat is then extracted as needed according to the season to efficiently heat and cool buildings. Its use is mainly expanding in Europe, and its widespread introduction is expected in Japan. However, regular inspection is required to utilize ...

Large Hadron Collider regularly makes magic

Large Hadron Collider regularly makes magic
2024-12-20
A brotherly research duo has discovered that when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) produces top quarks – the heaviest known fundamental particles – it regularly creates a property known as magic. This finding, published in Physical Review D, has implications for the progression of quantum computing, with magic being a measure that describes how difficult a quantum system is for a non-quantum computer to calculate. “The higher the magic, the more we need quantum computers to describe the behaviour,” explains Professor Martin White, from the University ...

Functionality of a grapevine transport protein defined

Functionality of a grapevine transport protein defined
2024-12-20
Researchers at the University of Adelaide have discovered that a protein which mediates the transport of alkali metal ions, such as potassium, and halides ions across plant membranes acts similarly to a protein found in animals. The protein is a cation-chloride cotransporter (CCC), and these are present in all cellular life forms. Some CCCs are able to transport two types of ions, both potassium and halide chloride, while others can also transport a third – sodium. The selectivity of plant CCCs has been controversial, and it was previously understood ...

Changes in store for atmospheric rivers

2024-12-20
Communities up and down the West Coast of the United States can expect the potent storms known as atmospheric rivers to evolve as the climate warms. But residents in Southern California will see much different changes than residents in more northerly locations like Seattle. New research, led by scientists at the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR), found that warming conditions will increase evaporation of ocean waters and significantly alter atmospheric rivers to the south. Farther north, however, atmospheric rivers will be most influenced by rising temperatures in the ocean and atmosphere. While ...

First results from 2021 rocket launch shed light on aurora’s birth

2024-12-20
Newly published results from a 2021 experiment led by a University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist have begun to reveal the particle-level processes that create the type of auroras that dance rapidly across the sky. The Kinetic-scale Energy and momentum Transport experiment — KiNET-X — lifted off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on May 16, 2021, in the final minutes of the final night of the nine-day launch window. UAF professor Peter Delamere’s analysis of the experiment’s results was published Nov. 19 in Physics of Plasmas. “The ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Thirty-year mystery of dissonance in the “ringing” of black holes explained

Less intensive works best for agricultural soil

Arctic rivers project receives “national champion” designation from frontiers foundation

Computational biology paves the way for new ALS tests

Study offers new hope for babies born with opioid withdrawal syndrome

UT, Volkswagen Group of America celebrate research partnership

New Medicare program could dramatically improve affordability for cancer drugs – if patients enroll

Are ‘zombie’ skin cells harmful or helpful? The answer may be in their shapes

University of Cincinnati Cancer Center presents research at AACR 2025

Head and neck, breast, lung and survivorship studies headline Dana-Farber research at AACR Annual Meeting 2025

AACR: Researchers share promising results from MD Anderson clinical trials

New research explains why our waistlines expand in middle age

Advancements in muon detection: Taishan Antineutrino Observatory's innovative top veto tracker

Chips off the old block

Microvascular decompression combined with nerve combing for atypical trigeminal neuralgia

Cutting the complexity from digital carpentry

Lung immune cell type “quietly” controls inflammation in COVID-19

Fiscal impact of expanded Medicare coverage for GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat obesity

State and sociodemographic trends in US cigarette smoking with future projections

Young adults drive historic decline in smoking

NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research

Chimpanzee stem cells offer new insights into early embryonic development

This injected protein-like polymer helps tissues heal after a heart attack

FlexTech inaugural issue launches, pioneering interdisciplinary innovation in flexible technology

In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity

Methyl eugenol: potential to inhibit oxidative stress, address related diseases, and its toxicological effects

A vascularized multilayer chip reveals shear stress-induced angiogenesis in diverse fluid conditions

AI helps unravel a cause of Alzheimer's disease and identify a therapeutic candidate

Coalition of Autism Scientists critiques US Department of Health and Human Services Autism Research Initiative

Structure dictates effectiveness, safety in nanomedicine

[Press-News.org] Poor vascular health accelerates brain ageing