Therapeutics That Can Potentially Replicate or Augment the Anti-Aging Effects of Physical Exercise.

Globally, better health care access and social conditions ensured a significant increase in the life expectancy of the population. There is, however, a clear increase in the incidence of age-related diseases which, besides affecting the social and economic sustainability of countries and regions around the globe, leads to a decrease in the individual's quality of life. There is an urgent need for interventions that can reverse, or at least prevent and delay, the age-associated pathological deterioration. Within this line, this narrative review aims to assess updated evidence that explores the potential therapeutic targets that can mimic or complement the recognized anti-aging effects of physical exercise. We considered pertinent to review the anti-aging effects of the following drugs and supplements: Rapamycin and Rapamycin analogues (Rapalogs); Metformin; 2-deoxy-D-glucose; Somatostatin analogues; Pegvisomant; Trametinib; Spermidine; Fisetin; Quercetin; Navitoclax; TA-65; Resveratrol; Melatonin; Curcumin; Rhodiola rosea and Caffeine. The current scientific evidence on the anti-aging effect of these drugs and supplements is still scarce and no recommendation of their generalized use can be made at this stage. Further studies are warranted to determine which therapies display a geroprotective effect and are capable of emulating the benefits of physical exercise.

A new design of an electrospinning apparatus for tissue engineering applications.

The electrospinning technique is being widely explored in the biomedical field due to its simplicity to produce meshes and its capacity to mimic the micro-nanostructure of the natural extracellular matrix. For skin tissue engineering applications, wound dressings made from electrospun nanofibers present several advantages compared to conventional dressings, such as the promotion of the hemostasis phase, wound exudate absorption, semi-permeability, easy conformability to the wound, functional ability and no scar induction. Despite being a relatively simple technique, electrospinning is strongly influenced by polymer solution characteristics, processing parameters and environmental conditions, which strongly determine the production of fibers and their morphology. However, most electrospinning systems are wrongly designed, presenting a large number of conductive components that compromises the stability of the spinning process. This paper presents a new design of an electrospinning system solving the abovementioned limitations. The system was assessed through the production of polycaprolactone (PCL) and gelatin nanofibers. Different solvents and processing parameters were considered. Results show that the proposed electrospinning system is suitable to produce reproducible and homogeneous electrospun fibers for tissue engineering applications.