Agetech World explores the latest business developments in the world of ageing and longevity.
AI app tackles dementia-related loneliness
Amicus Brain Innovations has launched Amicus INTERACT.
The AI-powered app is designed to provide real-time guidance that enables meaningful conversations and helps reduce the social isolation often caused by memory loss and communication challenges.
As dementia progresses, communication can become increasingly difficult, leading to loneliness for both individuals and their loved ones.
Amicus INTERACT provides a single, easy-to-use platform to start new conversations or respond to messages across text, WhatsApp, email and other communication channels.
With AI support that adapts to the evolving needs of older adults, the app ensures that every message reflects the user’s own voice and words.
“We created Amicus INTERACT to give a voice to those who need it most,” said Dr Dorai, AI researcher and CEO of Amicus Brain Innovations.
“By harnessing AI responsibly, we enable people with dementia to express themselves more clearly and engage more fully in their relationships, thus restoring independence in communications.”
Research shows that socially isolated older adults are 28 per cent more likely to develop dementia, and loneliness itself increases dementia risk by 31 per cent.
Fasting mimicking diet enhances autophagy while improving metabolic health
Researchers have published pilot clinical trial data showing that the five-day Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) was associated with increased activity of the body’s natural cellular clean-up process – autophagy – alongside significant improvements in key metabolic health indicators.
Autophagy’s fundamental importance to human biology was recognised with the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, underscoring how central this “cellular clean-up” system is to health and the adaptive mechanisms that have made human survival possible.
The randomised controlled trial, led by scientists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and UT Health San Antonio in collaboration with L-Nutra, is the first to directly measure autophagic flux in humans undergoing a dietary intervention.
Autophagy – the body’s natural process of breaking down and recycling damaged components – plays a central role in cellular repair, energy balance, immune defense, and resilience against premature ageing.
This self-renewal mechanism exists from yeast all the way to humans because our biology was shaped by regular periods of little or no food; in the face of adversity and famine, autophagy helped life not only survive but emerge stronger by identifying and repairing old, worn-out cellular components, a process many scientists describe as a true “miracle of life.”
By leveraging this built-in survival mechanism through controlled, periodic fasting-mimicking nutrition, researchers can begin to harness the benefits of autophagy for disease remission and longevity while avoiding many of the harms and risks of extreme, prolonged fasting.
This biologic backdrop set the stage for the current trial, which asked whether this ancient repair process could be safely and measurably activated in humans using a nutrition-based intervention.
Thirty healthy adults were randomized to receive one of two 5-day FMD formulations (Prolon or FMD2) or to continue their normal diet.
Blood samples collected before, during, and after the intervention revealed that participants in the Prolon arm demonstrated a measurable increase in autophagy flux, which reflects an enhanced rate and efficiency of the cellular clean-up activity.
Both FMD groups also experienced significant improvements in weight, fasting glucose, insulin sensitivity, and ketone levels compared to control.
“This is among the first studies that have evaluated the dynamic process of autophagy in humans during a medical nutrition programme,” said Sara Espinoza, MD, director of the Center for Translational Geroscience, Cedars-Sinai Medical, principal investigator of the study.
“It opens an exciting avenue for how short, periodic fasting-mimicking nutrition could be used to intervene in support of healthy ageing and metabolic health.”
The FMD is an evidence-based, interventional nutrition designed to deliver essential nutrients while triggering many of the same physiological effects as a water-only fast.
Previous research has shown FMD’s potential to reduce biological age scores, support metabolic balance, and improve a range of cardiometabolic risk factors.
This new study builds on that body of evidence by directly linking the program to markers of the body’s cellular recycling systems.
Because dysregulated autophagy and impaired cellular clean-up are tightly linked to cellular ageing – a root cause that drives premature ageing – the ability to safely stimulate this pathway with nutrition may offer a powerful new tool to support healthy ageing and promote healthy ageing.
“After decades of preclinical data, we finally demonstrated in humans the vital connection between fasting-mimicking nutrition with autophagy – one of the most sought-after goals in longevity science,” said Dr William Hsu, chief medical officer at L-Nutra.
“It’s a major step toward understanding how nutrition technology can modulate the biology of ageing.”
Ultimately, the hope is that by periodically activating this ancient “survival and renewal” programme through fasting-mimicking nutrition, we can help the body repair itself from within – improving metabolic health today while influencing long-term health trajectories.
Noom enters longevity space with microdose GLP-1Rx programme
Noom has announced the launch of Proactive Health Microdose GLP-1Rx, a first-of-its-kind programme that integrates GLP-1 medications as part of a larger preventive health programme.
The new offering combines personalised microdoses of GLP-1 medication, regular at-home biomarker testing, and Noom’s digital healthy habits platform to provide data, insights and personalised action plans.
The Proactive Health Microdose programme focuses on prevention and performance combining three key pillars including microdose GLP-1 medication; at-home biomarkers test kit; and behavioural support through Noom’s digital longevity companion.
The programme is designed for individuals with a BMI of 21 or higher, representing the vast majority of US adults. It expands access to GLP-1s beyond those with clinical obesity.
Noom first introduced its Microdose GLP-1 Program in August for people with a BMI of 25 or higher.
Since then, Noom has generated significant real-world data showing that even very small doses of GLP-1 medications, combined with Noom’s proven digital behavior programme, can deliver meaningful metabolic benefits.
Proactive Health Microdose GLP-1Rx includes the new Noom Biomarkers test kit for at-home blood testing.
This new blood test lets members track an advanced set of 17 biomarkers associated with long-term health.
