Neuron special issue explores the science of aging

Neuron, Cell Press’s prestigious neuroscience journal, is publishing a special issue on aging research on January 8, 2025. The collection of reviews and perspectives reflects the progress made in understanding the impact of aging on the brain and potential strategies to slow aging to promote brain health. The articles highlight factors that contribute to brain aging, including DNA damage, deteriorating immune function, and the brain’s ability to clear waste, as well as how we can better understand aging processes like white matter deterioration and how aged astrocytes impact brain function.

“While the causes of disease are multifactorial and dizzyingly complex, they tend to converge on a single common major risk factor: old age,” writes Neuron editor Axel Guskjolen. “As such, targeting aging itself (as opposed to only targeting disease pathophysiology once it emerges) should help delay the onset and progression of many disease states, including neurodegenerative diseases.”

Highlights from the Neuron special issue: 

• “Pathobiology of neurovascular aging: Advances and implications for cognitive health” https://cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(24)00913-9 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.12.014

As the body ages, so does the neurovascular system—from the large cerebral arteries to the smaller vessels that form an intricate web on the surface of the brain. This review by Costantino Iadecola and Monica Santisteban explores how aging-related changes to the neurovascular system slow down delivery of energy to the brain, disrupt transport across the blood brain barrier, and reduce its capacity to clear out toxic proteins. They also discuss how to develop strategies to promote healthy brain aging and improve the quality of life in older adults—“adding life to years.”

• “Waste clearance shapes aging brain health” https://cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(24)00687-1 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.09.017 (online)

In this review, Kipnis and colleagues focus on how aging can lead to the deterioration of waste clearance systems in the brain, leading to the buildup of potentially harmful substances. They describe how efficiency of this flow deteriorates with age and how increases in sleep disruptions can exacerbate cognitive decline. In particular, they focus on how fluid flow dynamics to and from the brain impact neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson’s disease.

• “Chronological versus immunological aging: Immune rejuvenation to arrest cognitive decline” https://cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(24)00882-1 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.12.004

In this perspective article, Michal Schwartz and colleagues discuss the link between the immune system and brain health, proposing that we amend the Latin phrase “mens sana in corpore sano” (“a healthy mind in a healthy body”) to “a healthy mind in a healthy immune system.” They discuss early work on the potential to slow brain aging by rejuvenating the immune system with an anti-aging vaccination.

Additional articles in the issue:

• “Astrocytes in aging” https://cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(24)00909-7 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.12.010
• “Brain aging and rejuvenation at single-cell resolution” https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(24)00885-7 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.12.007
• “Toward a functional future for the cognitive neuroscience of human aging” https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(24)00886-9 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.12.008
• “Autophagy, aging, and age-related neurodegeneration” https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(24)00663-9 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.09.015 (online)
• “White matter aging and its impact on brain function” https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(24)00767-0 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.10.019 (online)
• “DNA damage and its links to neuronal aging and degeneration” https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(24)00879-1 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.12.001
• “Biological sex matters in brain aging” https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(24)00883-3 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.12.005

Neuron (@NeuroCellPress), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that has established itself as one of the most influential and relied upon journals in the field of neuroscience and one of the premier intellectual forums of the neuroscience community. It publishes interdisciplinary articles that integrate biophysical, cellular, developmental, and molecular approaches with a systems approach to sensory, motor, and higher-order cognitive functions. Visit http://www.cell.com/neuron. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.