Intramural Research Program

IRP

NIH researchers find diabetes drug extends health and lifespan in mice

Long-term treatment with the type 2 diabetes drug metformin improves health and longevity of male mice when started at middle age, reports an international team of scientists led by researchers at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes Health. The study, which tested two doses of the drug in the male mice, found the higher dose to be toxic in the animals. Scientists emphasized that considerably more research is needed before the implications of metformin for healthy aging are known for humans.

Estrogen therapy has no long-term effect on cognition in younger postmenopausal women

A randomized clinical trial of estrogen therapy in younger postmenopausal women, aged 50–55, has found no long-term risk or benefit to cognitive function. The National Institutes of Health-supported study, reported in JAMA Internal Medicine on June 24, 2013, looked at women taking conjugated equine estrogens, the most common type of postmenopausal hormone therapy in the United States.

The earlier Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) linked the same type of hormone therapy to cognitive decline and dementia in older postmenopausal women.

Singleton, neurogenetics lab featured in NIH publication

Dr. Andrew Singleton, director of NIA’s Laboratory of Neurogenetics and branch chief of its Molecular Genetics Section, was recently featured in The Catalyst, the newsletter of the NIH Intramural Research Program. The article offers a fascinating glimpse into the lab’s groundbreaking research on the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, and more.

NIH researchers find gene affects fertility in mice

Increasing activity of a single gene--FOXO3--increases fertility by 31 to 49 percent in female mice, report researchers at the National Institute on Aging, NIH. Variants of the FOXO3 gene have been previously associated with longevity in many animal models, including humans; but, in mice the main effect of loss or increase of FOXO3 is on ovary function.

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NIH researchers find gene affects fertility in mice

NIA researchers find protein PGC-1alpha may play important role in brain health

The human brain is made up of tens of billions of neurons, brain cells that act as information messengers, transmitting and receiving chemical and electrical signals. These messages are received by branch-like cell structures called dendrites after traveling across synapses, the tiny gap between neurons. Now, researchers in NIA’s Intramural Research Program have shown in mice that a protein, PGC-1alpha, may play an important role in forming and maintaining healthy dendrites and synapses in the hippocampus--the brain region important to learning and memory.

NIH-supported scientists find genes influence susceptibility to problems from vitamin D deficiency

An international team of researchers has found that the vitamin D receptor gene (VDR), which senses and communicates the presence of vitamin D to the body, influences the chance that people with vitamin D deficiency develop negative health outcomes. Some variants of VDR may have a protective effect, while others might increase these people’s predisposition for the outcomes, specifically hip fracture, heart attack, cancer, and even death.

Risk gene for Alzheimer’s disease associated with lower brain amyloid

Researchers investigating a known gene risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease discovered it is associated with lower levels of beta amyloid—a brain protein involved in Alzheimer’s—in cognitively healthy older people. The findings suggest that a mechanism other than one related to beta amyloid accumulation may influence disease risk associated with the gene. The study, by researchers at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health, was published online September 27, 2012 in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Experimental Alzheimer’s drug shows promise in small, early-phase clinical studies

Posiphen, a drug candidate designed and developed by researchers in the NIA’s Intramural Research Program, has been shown in three small, early studies to be well-tolerated and to reduce the generation of amyloid and tau protein—the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease—in older people at risk for developing the disorder.

Exendin-4: From lizard to laboratory... and beyond

Throughout history, the natural world has served as a rich resource for compounds to treat human disease. For example, clay tablets from Mesopotamia dating from 2600 B.C.—humanity’s earliest written records—describe the healing powers of several plant species, including licorice, myrrh, and poppy capsule latex.

IDEAL study seeks "exceptional agers"

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