ARDD 2020: from aging mechanisms to interventions

Aging is emerging as a druggable target with growing interest from academia, industry and investors. New technologies such as artificial intelligence and advanced screening techniques, as well as a strong influence from the industry sector may lead to novel discoveries to treat age-related diseases. The present review summarizes presentations from the 7th Annual Aging Research and Drug Discovery (ARDD) meeting, held online on the 1st to 4th of September 2020. The meeting covered topics related to new methodologies to study aging, knowledge about basic mechanisms of longevity, latest interventional strategies to target the aging process as well as discussions about the impact of aging research on society and economy. More than 2000 participants and 65 speakers joined the meeting and we already look forward to an even larger meeting next year. Please mark your calendars for the 8th ARDD meeting that is scheduled for the 31st of August to 3rd of September, 2021, at Columbia University, USA

p62/SQSTM1 enhances breast cancer stem-like properties by stabilizing MYC mRNA

Aberrant p62 overexpression has been implicated in breast cancer development. Here, we found that p62 expression was elevated in breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs), including CD44+CD24− fractions, mammospheres, ALDH1+ populations and side population cells. Indeed, short-hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated knockdown of p62 impaired breast cancer cells from self-renewing under anchorage-independent conditions, whereas ectopic overexpression of p62 enhanced the self-renewal ability of breast cancer cells in vitro. Genetic depletion of p62 robustly inhibited tumor-initiating frequencies, as well as growth rates of BCSC-derived tumor xenografts in immunodeficient mice. Consistently, immunohistochemical analysis of clinical breast tumor tissues showed that high p62 expression levels were linked to poorer clinical outcome. Further gene expression profiling analysis revealed that p62 was positively correlated with MYC expression level, which mediated the function of p62 in promoting breast cancer stem-like properties. MYC mRNA level was reduced upon p62 deletion by siRNA and increased with p62 overexpression in breast cancer cells, suggesting that p62 positively regulated MYC mRNA. Interestingly, p62 did not transactivate MYC promoter. Instead, p62 delayed the degradation of MYC mRNA by repressing the expression of let-7a and let-7b, thus promoting MYC mRNA stabilization at the post-transcriptional level. Consistently, let-7a and let-7b mimics attenuated p62-mediated MYC mRNA stabilization. Together, these findings unveiled a previously unappreciated role of p62 in the regulation of BCSCs, assigning p62 as a promising therapeutic target for breast cancer treatments

ARDD 2020: from aging mechanisms to interventions

Aging is emerging as a druggable target with growing interest from academia, industry and investors. New technologies such as artificial intelligence and advanced screening techniques, as well as a strong influence from the industry sector may lead to novel discoveries to treat age-related diseases. The present review summarizes presentations from the 7th Annual Aging Research and Drug Discovery (ARDD) meeting, held online on the 1st to 4th of September 2020. The meeting covered topics related to new methodologies to study aging, knowledge about basic mechanisms of longevity, latest interventional strategies to target the aging process as well as discussions about the impact of aging research on society and economy. More than 2000 participants and 65 speakers joined the meeting and we already look forward to an even larger meeting next year. Please mark your calendars for the 8th ARDD meeting that is scheduled for the 31st of August to 3rd of September, 2021, at Columbia University, USA

ARDD 2020: from aging mechanisms to interventions

Aging is emerging as a druggable target with growing interest from academia, industry and investors. New technologies such as artificial intelligence and advanced screening techniques, as well as a strong influence from the industry sector may lead to novel discoveries to treat age-related diseases. The present review summarizes presentations from the 7(th) Annual Aging Research and Drug Discovery (ARDD) meeting, held online on the 1(st) to 4(th) of September 2020. The meeting covered topics related to new methodologies to study aging, knowledge about basic mechanisms of longevity, latest interventional strategies to target the aging process as well as discussions about the impact of aging research on society and economy. More than 2000 participants and 65 speakers joined the meeting and we already look forward to an even larger meeting next year. Please mark your calendars for the 8(th) ARDD meeting that is scheduled for the 31(st) of August to 3(rd) of September, 2021, at Columbia University, USA