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Decline in the hypothalamic Menin may play a key role in aging, according to a study. The findings reveal a previously unknown driver of physiological aging, and suggest that supplementation with a simple amino acid may mitigate some age-related changes. Leng and colleagues showed that Menin, a hypothalamic protein, is a key inhibitor of hypothalamic neuroinflammation. They observed that the level of Menin in the hypothalamus, but not astrocytes or microglia, declines with age. Another change was a decline in levels of the amino acid D-serine, known to be a neurotransmitter and sometimes used as a dietary supplement. The authors...

Approximately half of people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes experience peripheral neuropathy—weakness, numbness, and pain, primarily in the hands and feet. Now, researchers have identified another factor contributing to diabetes-associated peripheral neuropathy: altered amino acid metabolism. The team found that diabetic mice with low levels of two related amino acids, serine and glycine, are at higher risk for peripheral neuropathy. What's more, the researchers were able to alleviate neuropathy symptoms in diabetic mice by supplementing their diets with serine. The study adds to growing evidence that some often-underappreciated, "non-essential" amino acids play important roles in the nervous system....

A randomized, double blind human clinical trial reveals that supplementation with GlyNAC—a combination of glycine and N-acetylcysteine—improves many age-associated defects in older humans and powerfully promotes healthy aging. This is relevant because until now, there have been no solutions toward improving many of these age-related declines in people. The study shows that older humans taking GlyNAC for 16-weeks improved many characteristic defects of aging. This includes oxidative stress, glutathione deficiency and multiple aging hallmarks affecting mitochondrial dysfunction, mitophagy, inflammation, insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction, genomic damage, stem cell fatigue and cellular senescence. These were associated with improvements in muscle strength, gait...

Antioxidants (Basel). 2020 Jul; 9(7): 624.Published online 2020 Jul 16. doi: 10.3390/antiox9070624PMCID: PMC7402141PMID: 32708578Francesca Silvagno,* Annamaria Vernone, and Gian Piero PescarmonaAuthor information Article notes Copyright and License information DisclaimerThis article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Go to:AbstractThe novel COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the world’s population differently: mostly in the presence of conditions such as aging, diabetes and hypertension the virus triggers a lethal cytokine storm and patients die from acute respiratory distress syndrome, whereas in many cases the disease has a mild or even asymptomatic progression. A common denominator in all conditions associated with COVID-19 appears...