GlycanAge Blog: Health · Page 5
Discover health insights with GlycanAge. Explore biological age, inflammation, glycans, and expert tips for improving longevity and overall well-being.
The Sweet Secret of a Healthy Pregnancy
Pregnancy changes a mother’s immune system to protect her babies. These changes often improve the health of pregnant women suffering from autoimmune diseases. We do not fully understand the phenomenon, but antibody glycosylation modulation can shed light on this mystery.
Published:February 19, 2021
Reading time:5 minutes
Could Eating Soybeans Help Protect Men from Viral Infections?
When it comes to fighting off infections, women come out on top. Their secret is in oestrogen, a powerful immune booster that seems to be working in men, too.
Published:February 17, 2021
Reading time:5 minutes
The Role of Antibody Glycans in the Development of Severe COVID-19
One of the key questions in dealing with COVID-19 is how the same SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes mild to moderate symptoms in most individuals leads to very severe, sometimes even fatal disease in a subset of people. The overactivation of the immune system, often called the “cytokine storm” is believed to be an importan…
Published:November 11, 2020
Reading time:5 minutes
Glycans as Drivers of a Disease Risk
Though the family history of certain diseases increases the likelihood of a person becoming ill, in most cases it is not as simple to determine the risk of developing the disease as both genes and the environment contribute. You might inherit your grandmother's good heart, but your lifestyle will determine how long th…
Published:September 12, 2020
Reading time:10 minutes
Changes of Glycans With Age in Different Parts of the World
People are different and glycans are one of the main molecular drivers of these differences. Large collaborative study on over 10,000 individuals from 27 different populations revealed extensive changes of the IgG glycome composition with age. In young people, glycans suppressing inflammation were dominant, while olde…
Published:August 13, 2020
Reading time:5 minutes
It’s Official – Stress Alters the Way Brain Proteins Are Glycosylated
We all know that too much stress is bad. It has detrimental consequences for nearly all aspects of our physical and mental health. It especially impacts areas such as immune function, mood, blood pressure, and cognition. But we have known for a long time that stress also affects protein glycosylation, the process of a…
Published:July 21, 2020
Reading time:5 minutes
The Role of Glycans and Water in the Seasonality of COVID-19
COVID-19 seasonality is an important open question with conflicting information from different studies. At the moment we see an apparent decrease in COVID-19 severity in most parts of the northern hemisphere, but it is still not clear whether the decrease in the number of seriously ill people is due to SARS-CoV-2 seas…
Published:July 14, 2020
Reading time:5 minutes
Effects of Estrogens on the GlycanAge Index of Biological Age
One of the key requirements for an ageing biomarker is that it is responsive to interventions that are beneficially affecting the biology of ageing, but convincing evidence of this is still missing for many ageing biomarkers.
Published:June 29, 2020
Reading time:5 minutes
Can Glycans Predict the Loss of Kidney Function
Chronic kidney failure is one of the most common and debilitating complications of diabetes. Changes in glycosylation of immunoglobulin G (IgG) accompany biological ageing and regulates inflammation in diabetes – a process that participates in kidney function decline. A new study looks at the correlation between kidne…
Published:June 9, 2020
Reading time:5 minutes
Sialylation of Immunoglobulin E Is a Determinant of Allergic Pathogenicity
Immunoglobulin E (IgE) is a key molecule in allergies - the over-reaction of our immune system to non-harmful antigens from our surroundings. Upon sensitization, which happens at initial contact with antigen (in this case – allergen), allergen-specific IgE is synthesized and sits on the surface of cells (mastocytes an…
Published:May 21, 2020
Reading time:5 minutes
GlycanAge - the Best Biomarker of Biological Age
Over 10 years of research on over 100,000 people condensed in 13 min presentation of Prof Gordan Lauc at the Longevity Leaders Virtual 2020. Check this video for an introduction about glycans and their role in ageing and disease.
Published:May 19, 2020
Reading time:5 minutes
Glycans Are Crucial for the Response to Sars Cov-2 Infection
Each virus possesses a specific entry protein that acts as a key, unlocking the gates to the host cells. This viral entry protein usually binds to one of the host proteins, “the lock”, and such interactions are crucial for the infection and propagation of the virus [1]. Coronaviruses, in particular, are notoriously ve…
Published:May 18, 2020
Reading time:10 minutes