Kidney Protein Might Revive Aging Brains
生命の糸を紡ぐ責任は、古代ギリシャの運命の女神クロトーにある。同じ名前のタンパク質は、老化した脳に生命を蘇らせることができるかもしれない。(English) The responsibility for spinning the thread of life falls to Klotho, the ancient Greek goddess of fate. A protein with the same name might also be able to bring life back to an aging brain.
Kidney Protein Might Revive Aging Brains
The responsibility for spinning the thread of life falls to Klotho, the ancient Greek goddess of fate. A protein with the same name might also be able to bring life back to an aging brain.
Researchers at Yale and the University of California, San Francisco, found that the effects of a single injection of the klotho protein led to some improvements in cognitive function in older monkeys, lasting up to two weeks.
Klotho circulates in the blood after being produced by the kidney. Pathologist Makoto Kuro-o from the National Institute of Neuroscience in Tokyo first discovered the protein in 1997. He found that mice making more klotho lived 20 to 30 percent longer than those with normal levels.
Having more of the protein seems to have health benefits for people. Some people have more klotho than others, and levels naturally decrease with age. In 2014, researchers found people with higher levels performed better on thinking and memory tests.
Monkeys and humans have genetic similarities. In the current study, a single low dose of klotho was administered under the skin of monkeys to raise levels of the protein to what they would have had at birth. Overall, the animals performed better on tasks afterward.
Nobody knows how klotho gets into the brain and works. The results of the testing give strong evidence for testing it in humans. Once it is shown to be safe, clinical trials will likely be held with older people already showing cognitive decline and later tested on younger adults as a preventative.
//New words//
injection: My arm was very tender after the injection.
the act of putting a liquid, especially a drug, into a person's body using a needle and a syringe (small tube)
naturally: happening or existing as part of nature and not made or done by people
A healthy body will be able to fight off the illness naturally without using medicine.
Similarity:These theories share certain similarities.
A feature that things or people have that makes them like each other
dose: The label says to take one dose three times a day.
a measured amount of something, such as medicine
//Questions//
1
What did Yale and the University of California, San Francisco researchers find?
Answer
They found that the effects of a single injection of the klotho protein led to some improvements in cognitive function in older monkeys, lasting up to two weeks.
Reason
(2nd Paragraph) Researchers at Yale and the University of California, San Francisco, found that the effects of a single injection of the klotho protein led to some improvements in cognitive function in older monkeys, lasting up to two weeks.
2
Where is klotho made?
Answer
It is made by the kidney.
Reason
(3rd Paragraph) Klotho circulates in the blood after being produced by the kidney.
3
How does klotho get into the brain and work?
Answer
Nobody knows how klotho gets into the brain and works.
Reason
(6th Paragraph) Nobody knows how klotho gets into the brain and works.
//Discussions//
Q1
Do you agree with animal testing? Please explain.
-> No, I'm afraid I have to disagree.
Because animals have lives and have the right to live.
However, we cannot test on humans first.
So, for example, we may have no choice but to conduct animal testing within a minimal range for rats and small animals.
Q2
Would you like to use Klotho to prevent cognitive decline? Why or why not?
-> No, I don't want to use it.
Because I don't know if it's safe or not.
We will all die someday.
Before that, if cognitive function deteriorates a little, death anxiety may be alleviated.
It seems to me that dying with a clear head is more frightening.
Q3
Do you think clinical trials are safe? Please share your thoughts.
-> No, I don't think so.
It may produce good results, but it may also have harmful effects.
If that were the only option left, I would accept any method.
However, if there were other options or the results weren't very good, I would rather die than get better.
Q4
Do you think it is a good idea to try reversing human ageing? Please share your thoughts.
-> No, I don't think it's a good idea.
If everyone didn't age, many people would live much longer.
It breaks the rules of nature because it is not natural.
In other words, older people will not age and remain young, while the number of young people born will decrease.
We live our limited lives to the fullest, so we can cherish the time we are living and love our time and family.
If we were to live forever without ageing or dying, we would lose sight of our purpose in life.
Q5
Do you prefer taking medication in the form of pills or injections? Please support your answer.
-> Pills are better.
If you feel better just by drinking it, that's better.
I wouldn't say I like injections because they hurt and are very strong.
Q6
Which is more important, the ability to think or memory? Please discuss.
-> Thinking ability is more important.
Even if you have a good memory, you must think deeply to determine that information.
With the internet and AI, memory will become less and less necessary.
However, that is why it may be desirable to have both thinking and memory.
Kidney Protein Might Revive Aging Brains
https://nativecamp.net/textbook/page-detail/2/20556
One shot of a kidney protein gave monkeys a brain boost
An early experiment suggests that an injection of klotho improves working memory.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/07/one-shot-of-a-kidney-protein-gave-monkeys-a-brain-boost/
Add info No1)
A shot of kidney protein gives monkeys a brain boost
https://www.wired.com/story/one-shot-of-a-kidney-protein-gave-monkeys-a-brain-boost/
//Summary - Level-C2//
A study by Yale and the University of California, San Francisco researchers found that a single injection of the protein klotho improved cognitive function in older monkeys, with effects lasting two weeks. Klotho, produced by the kidney, has been linked to health and longevity. The protein was first discovered in 1997 and was found to extend the lifespan of mice by 20-30%. Higher levels of klotho have been associated with better cognitive performance in humans. The researchers believe klotho could be a promising avenue for rejuvenating brain function in older adults, although its exact mechanism of action remains unknown.
An early experiment in elderly rhesus monkeys suggests that an injection of klotho improves working memory. Could it one day help people?
1)
KLOTHO, the ancient Greek goddess of fate, is responsible for spinning the thread of life. A protein of the same name could also bring life back to an ageing brain in the human body.
2)
In a study published today in the journal Nature Aging, researchers from Yale and the University of California, San Francisco, found that a single injection of the protein klotho led to modest improvements in cognitive function in older monkeys and that the effects lasted for two weeks. The authors believe the protein is a promising avenue for research into rejuvenating brain function in older adults.
3)
"Age-related cognitive decline is one of our most pressing biomedical problems without truly effective drugs," says Dena Dubal, professor of neurology at UCSF and senior author of the study. After discovering in earlier work that klotho boosts cognition in mice, she says, "It became essential to test this in a brain like ours.
Produced by the kidney, klotho circulates in the blood and has been linked to health and longevity. Orson Moe, a kidney specialist and professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, describes it as a housekeeper that helps regulate the kidneys and metabolism. "It protects us and keeps us healthy," he says.
4)
The protein was first discovered in 1997 by pathologist Makoto Kuro-o at the National Institute of Neuroscience in Tokyo. He showed that mice lacking klotho suffered from what he called "a syndrome that resembles human ageing". They had early-onset heart disease, cancer, cognitive decline and organ failure. Kuro-o later found that mice that made more klotho lived 20 to 30 per cent longer than those with normal levels.
5)
In humans, having more protein seems to confer health benefits. Although klotho levels naturally decline with age, some people have more of it than others. In a 2014 paper, Dubal and her colleagues studied more than 700 participants between the ages of 52 and 85. Those with higher protein levels - about one in five people surveyed - performed better on tests of thinking and memory, such as drawing a recalled picture and naming the colour of a word shown in a different colour.
6)
In the current study, Dubal and her co-authors wanted to see if klotho had the same effects in monkeys, which are often used as surrogates for humans because of their genetic similarities. As people age, their working memory - the ability to hold something in mind, such as a phone number - deteriorates. Dubal's research team tested the functional memory capacity of 18 rhesus monkeys, whose age was roughly equivalent to 65 in human years. Each had to remember the location of a hidden treat in a series of boxes - a typical lab test the researchers chose because it relies on working memory and doesn't get easier over time.
7)
They then administered a single low dose of klotho under each monkey's skin, raising the protein levels to those usually present in the animals at birth. Four hours later, the researchers had the monkeys complete the food-finding task in batches of 20 trials, and the team then retested the monkeys over the next two weeks. Overall, the animals made more correct choices than before the injection. The team tested the monkeys on two versions of the task: an easier one with fewer compartments and a harder one with more rooms. Klotho improved their performance on the more straightforward task by about 6 per cent and on the more complex version by about 20 per cent, Dubal says.
"That's very encouraging," says Moe, who was not involved in the new study.
8)
The researchers had the monkeys perform the task several times over two weeks, and the team saw that even though the body breaks down klotho within a few days of being injected, the cognitive-enhancing effect lasted the entire time. "The fact that it can be given once and last for two weeks seems great, although we don't know at this point whether repeated administration would work again," says Eric Verdin, CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, who was not involved in the study.
9)
In previous studies with mice, low and high doses of klotho boosted cognition, helping them perform better in several maze tasks that challenge learning and memory. But when Dubal's team gave the monkeys quantities of 10, 20 and 30 micrograms per kilogram of body weight, the benefits plateaued at the 10-microgram dose. This raises an essential flag for the researchers as they consider testing Klotho injections in humans one day. Regarding dosage, Verdin says, "More is not always better".
10)
People are born with about five times as much klotho as they have in adulthood - and in the monkey experiment, the low dose of klotho was equivalent to infant levels. Dubal speculates that dosing within a range that the body has experienced before, without overshooting, maybe more critical in primates than in mice. The next step will be to test even lower doses in human clinical trials to find the "therapeutic sweet spot for humans," Dubal says. "Maybe it's a replenishment rather than a super-dose needed for brain health."
11)
But klotho is a big mystery: No one knows how it works in the brain. "It's a complete black box," says Verdin. Researchers think the protein must somehow protect the brain - but how? It doesn't seem to cross the blood-brain barrier, the semi-permeable boundary between blood vessels and tissue that keeps many harmful substances out of the brain.
Given that the cognitive effect of klotho outlasts its presence in the body, Dubal suspects it must be affecting the connections between neurons in the brain, possibly "redesigning the synapse to receive better and store memories," she says. Her research group is working to understand how Klotho gets into the brain and what it does there.
12)
The monkey experiment was limited to a two-week observation window, so the researchers don't know whether Klotho's effects might have lasted longer. The study also relied on a single type of cognitive task that doesn't capture all kinds of memory, such as procedural memory or the ability to remember how to do specific tasks. And despite their genetic similarities, rhesus monkeys are not humans. Given the differences in brain development and lifestyles between humans and monkeys, no one can be sure that the findings in monkeys will translate to human health care.
Nevertheless, Dubal believes the results are a strong argument for testing klotho in humans. "We know it works in a brain like ours," says Dubal. Given the urgent need to find effective treatments for neurodegeneration, she continues, "The move to human clinical trials can't come soon enough".
13)
Because klotho improved working memory in monkeys, Dubal says that once the injections are confirmed to be safe, studies will need to assess whether they improve people's performance on standardised tests of executive function - such as keeping information in mind, planning and problem-solving. These types of tests are typically used to assess patients with conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.
14)
Verdin believes that if Klotho moves into human testing, the first people to receive it in clinical trials will likely be older people already showing cognitive decline. If it's safe and effective, he could see it being tested in younger adults to prevent that decline. Klotho can't be given in a pill, so he thinks the protein could eventually be formulated as an injectable pen, similar to the type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic, issued under the skin once a week.
Bay Area-based Unity Biotechnology, launched in 2016 with backing from Jeff Bezos and the Mayo Clinic, has licensed the rights to UCSF's work and plans to eventually test a Klotho-based drug for cognitive disorders in human clinical trials. The company is currently testing the protein in animals.
Add info No2)
Human ageing is a necessary thing…The reason why only humans get old among terrestrial mammals
https://gendai.media/articles/-/112974
A)
Living things exist in this world because of evolution. It is not an exaggeration to say that expansion created life.
Evolution is a programme of repeated changes and decisions.
About 4 billion years ago, the first organisms (cells) appeared on Earth. Organisms reproduce by dividing. In the process of reproduction, different organisms are created. This is "change". Change creates diversity.
And in a given environment, organisms that multiply efficiently survive in a "selective" way. In other words, things not suited to the environment will die out. "Diversity" and "extinction". They are two sides of the same coin. Here, extinction means "death".
"Change and selection", in other words, the "birth and extinction (death) of diversity", is not a phenomenon that occurs only in primitive cells. It is an endlessly repeating process of evolution from the beginning to the present and into the future. Our being alive today is part of an ancient process of change and choice.
There have been countless 'deaths' along the way. Without death, evolution would not continue.
For an individual, 'death' is the end of life. However, from the long-term perspective of evolution, 'death' is the driving force of evolution.
Therefore, "death" has a significant meaning.
B)
Among land mammals, man is the only mammal; among sea mammals, only pilot and killer whales have "old age".
These three types of mammals have in common that they "raise children in a group". Older individuals also have a fixed role and work within the group, whether raising children or supervising the hunt.
A group of experienced elders seems to have an advantage over inexperienced young people.
Humans are creatures that need a lot of care when they are young.
If you leave your baby with grandma for a while, you can do things other than raising children. Of course, it doesn't have to be Grandma. Even grandparents can help older members of the group to raise their children. You are raising children in a group.
That's where "change and choice" happens.
Children of healthy seniors have inherited "genes that enable them to grow old in good health". And these genes are passed on to grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, Yasha-grandchildren and so on in the population. A group with energetic seniors will prosper with many children.
If the presence of seniors is advantageous for survival and reproduction, groups with seniors will be selectively retained.
This is the "granny hypothesis".