Longevity Papers

Aging emerges from nonlinear interactions among primary, antagonistic, and integrative hallmarks that progressively erode tissue resilience. As global demographics shift and chronic disease burden intensifies, extending healthspan with mechanistic precision has become imperative, accelerating the incorporation of artificial intelligence into geroscience. AI leverages multi-omics, spatial biology, imaging, and clinical data to reveal nonlinear structures linking hallmark interactions to tissue vulnerability and organismal decline. These mechanistic insights inform target prioritization, perturbation-based pathway modeling, and rational design of multi-target geroprotectors, including compounds already advancing through clinical trials. Beyond discovery, AI supports synthetic data generation, cross-disease repurposing, and personalized geriatric care through digital phenotyping and predictive analytics. However, these advances hinge on confronting fundamental challenges in data quality, confounding variables, batch effects, and technical artifacts that risk encoding spurious correlations, necessitating hierarchical experimental validation and explainable AI to distinguish causal mechanisms from epiphenomena. Algorithmic bias, digital ageism, privacy vulnerabilities, and infrastructural inequalities further threaten to exacerbate disparities among vulnerable aging populations. This review uniquely traces AI across the complete translational continuum, from hallmark-grounded biomarker discovery to clinical deployment, while positioning validation rigor and ethical infrastructure as core scientific determinants of a transformative AI-geroscience ecosystem.

Different species age in similar ways but their lifespans differ by orders of magnitude. It is not clear how these similarities and differences arise from the accumulation of damage that underlies aging. Does long lifespan arise from reduced damage production, increased removal or enhanced robustness to damage? Here we apply the saturating removal model-a stochastic model of damage accumulation and removal-and fit it to survival data from well-studied species. Several parameters have near-universal values including ratios of removal rate, noise amplitude and death threshold. The model parameter that best predicts lifespan is the damage production rate, which spans seven orders of magnitude. We identify two distinct aging regimes: ballistic aging where damage production outpaces removal, characterizing yeast, nematodes, flies and mice, and quasi-steady-state aging, where damage tracks a moving set point of balanced production and removal, characterizing humans, dogs, guinea pigs and cats. These results provide a mechanistic model-based basis of comparative aging that awaits experimental validation.

A decline in Klotho expression is a defining feature of aging and contributes to cellular dysfunctions. Here, we developed an engineered IVT Klotho mRNA incorporating ARCA capping. Ψ-modification and poly(A) tailing, delivered using a hyperbranched poly(β-amino ester) (HPAE)-based platform to enhance intracellular delivery and translation. Using CRISPR edited KL (-/-) iPSCs and derived iMSCs, we show that loss of KL induces a robust senescent phenotype characterized by activation of p53-p21-p16 pathways, mitochondrial depolarization, elevated ROS, and altered Ca

Cellular senescence is an irreversible stress response, which leads to loss of cellular function and remodelling of the cellular secretory profile. In humans, pancreatic β-cells undergo cellular senescence during the progression to type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, the mechanism linking β-cell senescence to islet dysfunction remains unknown and thus, the therapeutic potential of targeting senescent cells in T2D is not established. Herein, we identified a subpopulation of senescent β-cells expressing p21, which emerged early in the progression of T2D in humans and mice. Spatial transcriptomics, and proteomics analyses confirmed senescence and loss of cellular identity in this subpopulation in humans. Functional analysis revealed lack of glucose responsiveness, high basal insulin secretion, and transcription of senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) factors. SASP factors from p21+ β-cells induced secondary senescence in neighbouring cells, characterized by dysfunction and loss of identity. Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKi) counteracted the induction of secondary senescence and restored β-cell function in islets from humans with T2D and in high-fat diet-fed mice. These findings reveal the critical role of p21+ β-cells in T2D pathogenesis and the therapeutic potential of targeting this pathophysiological process.

Sleep and circadian disturbances precede motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD), acting as early neurodegeneration indicators. Disrupted rhythms, mitochondrial dysfunction, neuroinflammation, and neurotransmitter imbalance create a self-reinforcing cycle that accelerates progression. DJ-1 (PARK7), a redox-sensitive protein, provides central neuroprotection by preserving mitochondrial integrity, mitigating oxidative stress, and curbing neuroinflammation. DJ-1 loss or mutation weakens antioxidant defences, promotes α-synuclein aggregation, and worsens dopaminergic neuron loss, positioning it as a key biomarker and therapeutic target. Oxidative stress, mitochondrial impairment, chronic inflammation, and telomere attrition link neurodegeneration to systemic and skin aging via a "neuro-cutaneous aging axis." Similar mechanisms include mitochondrial dysfunction, ferroptosis, and redox imbalance energy Alzheimer's cognitive decline. Chronotherapy, NRF2 activators, phytochemicals, nanozymes, and postbiotics offer promise in restoring redox balance and halting progression. Telomere dysfunction and genomic instability further connect neural and skin aging, modulated by environment, diet, and lifestyle. Micro physiological systems, predictive analytics, and personalized medicine enhance mechanistic insights and therapy development. Targeting interconnected pathways of redox regulation, mitochondrial function, proteostasis, and telomere maintenance provides a unified approach to combat neurodegeneration and aging. DJ-1-focused therapies, paired with antioxidants and mitochondrial interventions, hold strong potential for disease modification and healthy aging.