Assessing Metabolic Ageing via DNA Methylation Surrogate Markers: A Multicohort Study in Britain, Ireland and the USA.

Metabolomics and epigenomics have been used to develop 'ageing clocks' that assess biological age and identify 'accelerated ageing'. While metabolites are subject to short-term variation, DNA methylation (DNAm) may capture longer-term metabolic changes. We aimed to develop a hybrid DNAm-metabolic clock using DNAm as metabolite surrogates ('DNAm-metabolites') for age prediction.

Factors Associated With Cocaine Use at 17 and 20 Years Old: A Longitudinal Analysis of a Nationally Representative Cohort.

Purpose: Despite growing concerns about trends in cocaine use, there is a shortage of longitudinal research that prospectively examines risk and protective factors associated with cocaine initiation and use in general youth populations. This study addresses this gap.

Methods: Growing Up in Ireland is a nationally representative cohort.

A novel DNA methylation-based surrogate biomarker for chronic systemic inflammation (InfLaMeS): results from the Health and Retirement Study.

Chronic low-grade systemic inflammation is a risk factor for chronic diseases and mortality and is an important biomarker in health research. DNA methylation (DNAm) surrogate biomarkers are valuable exposure, risk factor and health outcome predictors in studies where the measures cannot be measured directly and often perform as well or better than direct measure. We generated a DNAm surrogate biomarker for chronic, systemic inflammation from a systemic inflammation latent variable of seven inflammatory markers and evaluated its performance relative to measured inflammatory biomarkers in predicting several age-associated outcomes of interest, including mortality, activities of daily living and multimorbidity in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS).

Which Components of the Haemodynamic Response to Active Stand Predict Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality? Data From The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing.

Background: An integrated haemodynamic response during standing may serve as an integrative marker of neuro-cardiovascular function. Individual components of both heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) responses to active stand (AS) have been linked with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality. We assessed longitudinal associations between entire HR/BP response curves during AS, incident CVD and mortality over 12 years.

Unlocking the Potential for Methanol Synthesis via Electrochemical CO Reduction Using CoPc-Based Molecular Catalysts.

The electrochemical CO reduction reaction (CORR) to produce methanol (CHOH) is an attractive yet challenging approach due to a lack of selective electrocatalysts. An immobilized cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) molecular catalyst has emerged as a promising electrocatalyst for CHOH synthesis, demonstrating decent activity and selectivity through a CO-CO-CHOH cascade reaction. However, CoPc's performance is limited by its weak binding strength toward the CO intermediate.

The influence of exogenous amines on the electrochemical CO reduction activity of a cobalt-pyridyldiimine catalyst.

Studying the interactions between CO sorbents and electrocatalysts for the electrochemical CO reduction reaction (-CORR) can offer viable strategies to advance the development of the Reactive Capture of CO (RCC). In this report we studied the effect of amines on the performance of the [Co(PDI-Py)] catalyst for the -CORR. The presence of amines shifts the onset potential for the -CORR more positive and increases the catalytic activity while maintaining the high Faradaic efficiency (≥90%) for CO production.

Mitigating Cobalt Phthalocyanine Aggregation in Electrocatalyst Films through Codeposition with an Axially Coordinating Polymer.

Cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) is a promising molecular catalyst for aqueous electroreduction of CO, but its catalytic activity is limited by aggregation at high loadings. Codeposition of CoPc onto electrode surfaces with the coordinating polymer poly(4-vinylpyridine) (P4VP) mitigates aggregation in addition to providing other catalytic enhancements. Transmission and diffuse reflectance UV-vis measurements demonstrate that a combination of axial coordination and π-stacking effects from pyridyl moieties in P4VP serve to disperse cobalt phthalocyanine in deposition solutions and help prevent reaggregation in deposited films.

Bacteria-derived short-chain fatty acids as potential regulators of fungal commensalism and pathogenesis.

The human gastrointestinal microbiome encompasses bacteria, fungi, and viruses forming complex bionetworks which, for organismal health, must be in a state of homeostasis. An important homeostatic mechanism derives from microbial competition, which maintains the relative abundance of microbial species in a healthy balance. Microbes compete for nutrients and secrete metabolites that inhibit other microbes.

Selective Reduction of Aqueous Nitrate to Ammonium with an Electropolymerized Chromium Molecular Catalyst.

Nitrate (NO) is a common nitrogen-containing contaminant in agricultural, industrial, and low-level nuclear wastewater that causes significant environmental damage. In this work, we report a bioinspired Cr-based molecular catalyst incorporated into a redox polymer that selectively and efficiently reduces aqueous NO to ammonium (NH), a desirable value-added fertilizer component and industrial precursor, at rates of ∼0.36 mmol NH mg h with >90% Faradaic efficiency for NH.

Atomic Layer Deposition of Cu Electrocatalysts on Gas Diffusion Electrodes for CO Reduction.

Electrochemical reduction of CO using Cu catalysts enables the synthesis of C products including CH and CHOH. In this study, Cu catalysts were fabricated using plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD), achieving conformal deposition of catalysts throughout 3-D gas diffusion electrode (GDE) substrates while maintaining tunable control of Cu nanoparticle size and areal loading. The electrochemical CO reduction at the Cu surface yielded a total Faradaic efficiency (FE) > 75% for C products.

Mind versus body: Perceived stress and biological stress are independently related to cognitive decline.

Chronic stress may increase risk of age-related cognitive decline. 'Stress', however, is a multidimensional construct and few studies have investigated the inter-relationship of subjective stress and biological stress with cognitive decline. In this study, we examine the relationship between perceived stress and two measures of biological stress - allostatic load, indexing stress at the physiological level and leukocyte telomere length, indexing stress at the cellular level - with cognitive decline over a 12-year period in adults aged 50 and older.

The short-chain fatty acid crotonate reduces invasive growth and immune escape of by regulating hyphal gene expression.

Macrophages curtail the proliferation of the pathogen within human body niches. Within macrophages, adapts its metabolism and switches to invasive hyphal morphology. These adaptations enable fungal growth and immune escape by triggering macrophage lysis.

Metabolic syndrome accelerates epigenetic ageing in older adults: Findings from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA).

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a risk factor for the development of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality. It has an estimated prevalence of 40 % among older adults. Epigenetic clocks, which measure biological age based on DNA methylation (DNAm) patterns, are a candidate biomarker for ageing.

Translating Catalyst-Polymer Composites from Liquid to Gas-Fed CO Electrolysis: A CoPc-P4VP Case Study.

The electrochemical CO reduction reaction (CORR) in gas-fed flow electrolyzers using gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) generates industrially relevant activities and provides a promising approach for carbon recycling. Developing effective catalyst systems on GDEs is critical for achieving high activities. Catalyst-polymer composites (CPCs) formed between immobilized molecular catalysts and coordinating polymers exhibit positive synergies for the enhancement of CORR activity.

Towards a consensus definition of allostatic load: a multi-cohort, multi-system, multi-biomarker individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis.

Background: Allostatic load (AL) is a multi-system composite index for quantifying physiological dysregulation caused by life course stressors. For over 30 years, an extensive body of research has drawn on the AL framework but has been hampered by the lack of a consistent definition.

Methods: This study analyses data for 67,126 individuals aged 40-111 years participating in 13 different cohort studies and 40 biomarkers across 12 physiological systems: hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) axis, parasympathetic nervous system functioning, oxidative stress, immunological/inflammatory, cardiovascular, respiratory, lipidemia, anthropometric, glucose metabolism, kidney, and liver.

Examining the Impact of Socioeconomic Position Across the Life Course on Cognitive Function and Brain Structure in Healthy Aging.

This study explores the relationship of life-course intergenerational social mobility with cognitive function and brain structure in older adults using Diagonal Reference Models. Data from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, a population-based cohort of adults aged 50 years and older (N = 4 620 participants; mean age: 66.1; standard deviation: 9.

Life-course socioeconomic factors are associated with markers of epigenetic aging in a population-based study.

Adverse socioeconomic circumstances negatively affect the functioning of biological systems, but the underlying mechanisms remain only partially understood. Here, we explore the associations between life-course socioeconomic factors and four markers of epigenetic aging in a population-based setting. We included 684 participants (52 % women, mean age 52.

Intergenerational Social Mobility and Allostatic Load in Midlife and Older Ages: A Diagonal Reference Modeling Approach.

Objectives: This study aims to understand the association of life-course intergenerational social mobility with allostatic load (AL) burden in midlife and older ages in Ireland.

Methods: The study involved biological data for 3,987 older adults participating in The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). Intergenerational social mobility was characterized using the cross-classification of origin socioeconomic position (SEP; i.

Strategies for breaking molecular scaling relationships for the electrochemical CO reduction reaction.

The electrocatalytic CO reduction reaction (CORR) is a promising strategy for converting CO to fuels and value-added chemicals using renewable energy sources. Molecular electrocatalysts show promise for the selective conversion of CO to single products with catalytic activity that can be tuned through synthetic structure modifications. However, for the CORR by traditional molecular catalysts, beneficial decreases in overpotentials are usually correlated with detrimental decreases in catalytic activity.

The Role of Epigenetic Clocks in Explaining Educational Inequalities in Mortality: A Multicohort Study and Meta-analysis.

Educational inequalities in all-cause mortality have been observed for decades. However, the underlying biological mechanisms are not well known. We aimed to assess the role of DNA methylation changes in blood captured by epigenetic clocks in explaining these inequalities.

Considering the Influence of Polymer-Catalyst Interactions on the Chemical Microenvironment of Electrocatalysts for the CO Reduction Reaction.

The electrochemical CO reduction reaction (CORR) is an attractive method for capturing intermittent renewable energy sources in chemical bonds, and converting waste CO into value-added products with a goal of carbon neutrality. Our group has focused on developing polymer-encapsulated molecular catalysts, specifically cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc), as active and selective electrocatalysts for the CORR. When CoPc is adsorbed onto a carbon electrode and encapsulated in poly(4-vinylpyridine) (P4VP), its activity and reaction selectivity over the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are enhanced by three synergistic effects: a primary axial coordination effect, a secondary reaction intermediate stabilization effect, and an outer-coordination proton transport effect.

Early life adversity and age acceleration at mid-life and older ages indexed using the next-generation GrimAge and Pace of Aging epigenetic clocks.

Objective: This retrospective cross-sectional study was designed to explore whether the experience of childhood adversity was associated with epigenetic age acceleration in mid-life and older ages using the next generation GrimAge and Pace of Aging DNA methylation clocks.

Method: The study involved a sub-sample of 490 individuals aged 50-87 years of age participating in the Irish Longitudinal Study on Aging (TILDA); a large nationally representative prospective cohort study of aging in Ireland. Childhood adversity was ascertained via self-report using 5-items that were deemed to indicate potentially nefarious childhood exposures, including growing up poor, death of a parent, parental substance abuse in the family, childhood physical abuse, and childhood sexual abuse.