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New Stanford study links immune cells to brain aging

February 11, 2021

A new study published in 2021 has revealed the identity of rogue immune cells that cause age-related deterioration
Conducting experiments in mice and human cell cultures, the researchers elaborated how a type of cell, known as myeloid, causes tissue-damaging inflammation in older people
The study inferred that blocking the inflammatory mechanism could help restore youthful cell metabolism and reverse age related mental decline

A recent scientific investigation published in January 2021 showed how a subset of immune cells contribute to age-related health decline. Specific cells within our immune system go rogue as we age, stoking the fires of chronic inflammation instead of playing their primary role of protecting the body. For a long time, biologists have believed that getting ahead of this inflammation could slow the aging process and at least delay the onset of many age-related conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, heart conditions, cancer, and ultimately incapacitation. But they didn’t know what type of specific cells were responsible. The new study by Stanford Medicine experimented with mice and human cell cultures and established that myeloids were the culprit. Researchers from Princeton and Tokyo’s Keio University School of Medicine also contributed to the research. Myeloids are normally tasked with fighting off foreign pathogens and cleaning up dead cells and other debris. But as we age, these cells appear to derelict their duty and declare war on an imaginary enemy, wreaking havoc to otherwise healthy tissues in the process. The scientists involved in the study found that by blocking the action of a certain hormone on myeloid cells, they could stop this destructive activity and restore youthful metabolism. This could be the first step towards reversing age-related mental decline in the elderly. “If you adjust the immune system, you can de-age the brain,” said Professor Katrin Andreasson, the study’s top author. Andreasson’s team conducted experiments in mice and compared human cell cultures from people under 35 years to those older than 65. In both the older mice and cell cultures from elderly people, they found increased levels of a hormone that occasionally promotes inflammation. The body’s main source of this hormone is myeloid cells. Once produced, the hormone works with receptors in myeloid cells to cause inflammation. This malicious action intensifies with age, further increasing inflammation and reducing energy production in cells. Glucose that would otherwise be used as fuel is converted and stored as animal ‘starch’. This hoarding of energy and subsequent energy-deprivation of cells drives an inflammatory rage that harms aging tissue. The researchers established that by blocking the binding between the hormone and myeloid cell receptors, they could downshift the harmful pattern. Old myeloid cells were freed to consume glucose again and reverse their assumed inflammatory character. There was also evidence that the blockage helped reverse age-related cognitive decline in mice. The compounds used to achieve the blockage in the study are not yet approved for human use. But they create a road map for drug makers to create medication that could be administered in elderly people to achieve similar outcomes.

References: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/sm-ssr011921.php

New Stanford study links immune cells to brain aging

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