Simple urine test can tell how much our body has aged

Scientists have identified a promising new marker of ageing in urine that may help predict the risk of developing age-related diseases and even death. Researchers found that a substance indicating oxidative damage increases in urine as people get older. The study, also describes a way to easily measure the levels of this marker in human urine samples. The new marker potentially provides a method to measure how much our body has aged - our biological rather than chronological age, researchers said. This could help predict our risk of developing age-related disease, and even the likely time-frame for our death, they said. While everyone born in the same year has the same chronological age, the bodies of different people age at different rates. This means that, although the risk of many diseases increases with age, the link between our age in years and our health and lifespan is relatively loose. Many people enjoy long lives, relatively free of disease, while others suffer chronic illness and premature death. Some researchers consider normal ageing to be a disease, where our cells accumulate damage over time.The rate of this cellular damage can vary from person to person, and may be dictated by genetics, lifestyle and the environment we live in. This cellular damage may be a more accurate indication of our biological age than the number of years since we were born. We need to be able to measure biological age to know whether treatments to slow ageing - which may be possible in the future - are effective, researchers said. One mechanism thought to underlie biological ageing involves a molecule vital to our survival - oxygen - in what is called the free radical theory of ageing. "Oxygen by-products produced during normal metabolism can cause oxidative damage to biomolecules in cells, such as DNA and RNA," said a Dr. "As we age, we suffer increasing oxidative damage, and so the levels of oxidative markers increase in our body," the Dr. said. One such marker called 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanosine or 8-oxoGsn results from oxidation of a crucial molecule in our cells called RNA. The researchers measured 8-oxoGsn in urine samples from 1,228 Chinese residents aged 2-90 years old, using a rapid analysis technique called ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography. "We found an age-dependent increase in urinary 8-oxoGsn in participants 21 years old and older," said the Dr. "Therefore, urinary 8-oxoGsn is promising as a new marker of ageing," he said. Interestingly, levels of 8-oxoGsn were roughly the same between men and women, except in post-menopausal women, who showed higher levels. This may have been caused by the decrease in oestrogen levels that happens during menopause, as oestrogen is known to have anti-oxidant effects. 

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Squirrels provide clues to new stroke treatments

Hibernating ground squirrels have provided clues to new treatments for brain damage caused by stroke. While the animals' brains experience dramatically reduced blood flow during hibernation, just like human patients after a certain type of stroke, the squirrels emerge from their extended naps suffering no ill effects.

Now, a team of scientists identified a potential drug that could grant the same resilience to the brains of ischemic stroke patients by mimicking the cellular changes that protect the brains of those animals.

"For decades scientists have been searching for an effective brain-protecting stroke therapy to no avail. If the compound identified in this study successfully reduces tissue death and improves recovery in further experiments, it could lead to new approaches for preserving brain cells after an ischemic stroke," said researcher.

Currently, the only way to minimize stroke-induced cell death is to remove the clot as soon as possible. A treatment to help brain cells survive a stroke-induced lack of oxygen and glucose could dramatically improve patient outcomes, but no such neuroprotective agents for stroke patients exist.
Recently, researchers found that a cellular process called SUMOylation goes into overdrive in a certain species of ground squirrel during hibernation. The researcher suspected this was how the animals' brains survived the reduced blood flow caused by hibernation, and subsequent experiments in cells and mice confirmed his suspicions.

SUMOylation occurs when an enzyme attaches a molecular tag called a Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier (SUMO) to a protein, altering its activity and location in the cell. Other enzymes called SUMO-specific proteases (SENPs) can then detach those tags, thereby decreasing SUMOylation.
Lead author Joshua Bernstock and his colleagues examined whether any of over 4,000 molecules from the NCATS small molecule collections could boost SUMOylation by blocking a SENP called SENP2, which would theoretically protect cells from a shortage of life-sustaining substances.
The researchers first used an automated process to examine whether the compounds prevented SENP2 from severing the connection between a tiny metal bead and an artificial SUMO protein created in the lab. This system, along with computer modeling and further tests performed both in and outside of cells, whittled the thousands of candidate molecules down to eight that could bind to SENP2 in cells and were non-toxic. Two of those - ebselen and 6-thioguanine - were then found to both boost SUMOylation in rat cells and keep them alive in the absence of oxygen and glucose.
A final experiment showed that ebselen boosted SUMOylation in the brains of healthy mice more than a control injection. 6-thioguanine was not tested because it is a chemotherapy drug with side effects that make it unsuitable as a potential stroke treatment. The researchers now plan to test whether ebselen can protect the brains of animal models of stroke.

Because SUMOylation affects a variety of molecules, researcher believes his group's approach could inspire similar attempts to treat neurological conditions by targeting pathways with wide-ranging effects. He also hopes it will prompt others to look to natural models, as researchers did with the ground squirrel.

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