 Think about parasitic worms living inside of you, but could parasitic worms living inside the gut microbiome actually be beneficial for human health? We'll have this story and more in this episode of Lifespan News. Welcome to Lifespan News on X10, your source for longevity science updates. I'm your host, Brent Nally. If you missed our last episode then you can watch it by clicking the card above. We encourage you to check the description below for links to these stories. Continuing with our first story about a review by researchers at the Institute for Healthy Aging at University College London in the United Kingdom. The researchers determined that infestation of the gut microbiome by a type of parasitic worm known as Helmets might be a way to reduce age-related chronic inflammation. The low-grade constant inflammation observed in aging is called inflamaging and it's known to interfere with cellular communication, stem cell mobility, and the correct functioning of the immune system. According to the study authors, humans co-evolved with parasitic worms throughout history, but it's only in relatively recent times that we have mostly eliminated these parasitic worms, especially in the Western world. But the lack of these parasites might have undesirable effects. These studies have shown that, for example, multiple sclerosis patients that had been infected by gut parasites showed a reduction in their symptoms, which then got worse after the parasites were cleared. Other studies have suggested that the Helmets infection reduces pro-inflammatory cytokines and other compounds associated with inflamaging. The authors suggest that the glycoprotein ES62 produced by Helmets is what may help dampening immune system over reactions, though it's not clear what its mechanism of action is. In rodent studies, administration of ES62 has proven to lengthen the lifespan of the rodents by 12%. Despite the fact that the rodents were fed a high-calorie diet to simulate accelerated aging. Finally, the researchers explained that it's too early to draw conclusions, as more thorough studies need to be conducted before the benefits of administering ES62 to people may be determined. For our next story, increasing NAD plus reduces amyloids and benefits mitochondria. A new study shows NAD plus homeostasis plays a critical role in controlling age-related muscle amyloid dosis, which is the accumulation of amyloid-like deposits. The researchers found that amyloid-like deposits accumulate in aging muscles in several species. There was also a decline in mitochondrial function in skeletal muscle. The researchers were able to reduce amyloid accumulation in nematodes and mammals by boosting NAD plus. NAD plus treatment also improved the performance of mitochondria. Old nematodes and mice given NAD plus had improved mitochondrial function and muscle homeostasis, and the same was true in human cell cultures. Overall, the study uses bioinformatic and experimental analysis to demonstrate that muscle decline during aging is linked with mitochondrial dysfunction and that NAD plus status affects both processes. NAD plus is also involved in regulating nutrient signaling, so this study is a good example of how the different hallmarks of aging are interconnected and influence one another. By the way, Lifespan News is released every Tuesday at noon Eastern time, while our other X10 science and advocacy videos are released every other Monday also at noon Eastern time. We encourage you to subscribe to our new X10 YouTube channel. Once you're subscribed, be sure to click the notification bell and select all notifications to ensure you don't miss any videos. Now back to the news. For our next story, senescent cells and their secretions are shown to contribute to age-related macular degeneration. A recent review published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation discussed the potential of xenotherapies to treat age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, which is one of the leading causes of blindness in the elderly. Senescent cells seem to be a major driver of AMD. Senescent cells, as we have seen in many episodes, are dysfunctional cells that no longer support the tissue they're part of and produce harmful chemicals that cause a low-grade but constant inflammation that worsens with age. In the review, the researchers pointed out how different types of senescent cell populations present in the macula may contribute to the development and progression of AMD, and the potential of xenotherapies to address AMD. Xenotherapies include different approaches, from destroying senescent cells to returning senescent cells to a functional state, to blunting the harmful effects of the chemical senescent cells secret. There are different xenotherapies currently being tested in humans or about to be soon, so we look forward to see what the results will be. Moving on, Leafs Greg Gillespie and Arcadia Mazen have recently attended the Longevity Therapeutics virtual event and have shared a few lessons with us from their attendance. The first two Longevity Therapeutics conferences were real-world events in San Francisco, but the pandemic situation has forced many such events to go virtual, including Leafs' own third annual Ending Age-related diseases conference which was held in August of 2020. I had the pleasure of attending Longevity Therapeutics' second annual conference in January 2020 in San Francisco, and I learned a lot, and I made a lot of great connections with scientists and longevity entrepreneurs. I was even fortunate enough to interview a few of them at the conference on my personal YouTube channel, including Dr. Michael Fossil, Dr. Hanadi Yosef, and Dr. Marco Corta. Dr. Marco Corta gave the opening talk at this year's Longevity Therapeutics conference. This year's Longevity Therapeutics online conference also saw many other speakers talking about very interesting topics related to the field of aging and longevity. Speakers from rejuvenation companies such as Restore Bio, Unity Biotechnologies, Alcahast, Sins Research Foundation, Ensilico, Juve Life, and many more updated the public about the progress of their respective companies' initiatives. So if you missed the event and you want to learn more about it, then check the description below for links to a three-part coverage. For our final story, could we cool the planet if we had to? Okay, so admittedly, this topic isn't directly related to healthy human life extension. But then again, part of advocating for healthy human life extension entails keeping Earth healthy, you know, because humans live on Earth, and so us humans would like to keep Earth as hospitable as possible for humans to thrive. The latest episode of Science to Save the World digs into the question of geoengineering. Earth continues to warm at an alarming pace because we prove an unable to curb emissions fast enough. So could we try making the atmosphere more reflective instead? Watch this short video to learn more and to find out how you can help. As always, there'll be a link in the description below. That's all the news for this video. Before you go, there's a few quick, free, and simple things that you can do to help us solve the human aging problem. If you haven't already yet, please make sure to like this video, share this video on your social media. Make sure that you're subscribed with the bell turned to all notifications to ensure you don't miss any videos. Is there a recent life extension story that you think we should have included in one of our recent videos but haven't yet? And which of the stories from this video excited you the most? Let us know what you think in the comments below. We really appreciate it and we look forward to seeing you in the next episode, at least as healthy as you are now.