- Scientists are always looking for ways to slow down the aging process.
- Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have discovered that T cells in the body can be reprogrammed to slow and even reverse aging.
- Using a mouse model, scientists have discovered that T cells can be used to fight off another type of cell that causes aging.
Even before Ponce de Leon was credited with discovering the Fountain of Youth, humans have always been looking for ways to slow down the aging process.
As the number of
According to new research from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, the body’s
Using a mouse model, scientists found that T cells can be used to protect against another type of cell that increases as people age and causes inflammation, making the aging immune system less effective over time. did.
This study was recently published in the journal
T cells are a type of white blood cell known as a lymphocyte. They are an important part of the immune system, helping the body find and destroy potentially harmful pathogens such as viruses and bacteria.
T cells are unique in that different T cells are designed to seek out and destroy specific pathogens.
For example, a baby’s T cells are tasked with remembering the different viruses they are exposed to for the first time. Then, as the baby grows and ages, her same T cells are used to fight the same viruses throughout her life.
T cells are produced within the body’s bone marrow. It then moves to the thymus gland for further development. Once mature, T cells travel to tissues and organs within the lymphatic system and circulate in the bloodstream.
Over the past few years, researchers have been looking at ways to use T cells to fight certain diseases, such as cancer.
This led to the development of chimeric antigen receptors.
Scientists are also investigating the use of CAR T cell therapy in the treatment of non-cancer diseases such as:
Corinna Amor Vegas, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and lead author of the study, said the immune system is much more powerful at eliminating damaged cells in young people, so aging said it focused on T cells as a potential way to combat the disease. .
“We therefore asked whether we could redirect and repower T cells during aging to eliminate accumulated damaged cells,” said Dr. Amor Vegas. Today’s medical news.
Dr. Amor Vegas describes these damaged cells as
“Senescent cells are cells in the body that have accumulated a lot of damage, so that they stop working normally and instead become very prone to inflammation. It is extremely harmful because it creates a severely pro-inflammatory microenvironment that also interferes with the proper functioning of other cells in the body.”
— Dr. Corina Amor Vegas, lead study author
Previous studies have explored the use of senescent cells.
In this study, Dr. Amor Vegas and her team discovered that CAR T cell therapy could be used to eliminate damaged or senescent cells in mice.
Scientists found that mice that received CAR T cell therapy to remove senescent cells lost weight, had improved metabolism and glucose tolerance, increased physical activity, and were healthier. .
“We were very excited to see that CAR T cells can eliminate senescent cells and promote these effects,” said Dr. Amor Vegas. “We were also very excited about the long-term persistence of these effects.”
“Interestingly, in our study we saw not only a therapeutic effect, but also a preventive effect when treating older animals,” she continued. “So when we took young animals and treated them once when they were young and let them age, they aged better.”
When asked about future plans for this research, D. Amor Vegas said he was interested in its potential impact on the treatment of age-related diseases in humans.
“Nonetheless, it’s a long journey and there’s still a lot of research that needs to be done to optimize the approach,” she added.
MNT and Dr. Yi Zhang, director member of the Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI), professor at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Hackensack Meridian Health in New Jersey, and co-leader of the Cancer-Host-Interactions Program. I also talked to him. Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Washington, DC, for this study.
Dr. Chan said healthy aging requires smart, optimistic and effective strategies to address population aging.
Dr. Zhang added that currently, it is still not fully understood how tissues age and how senescent cells cause harmful inflammation.
“[Dr. Amor Vegas’s]research not only addresses these questions, but also uncovers innovative strategies that can be leveraged to accelerate the removal of senescent cells,” Dr. Chan explained.
“Additionally, given the fact that CAR T cell therapy has transformed cancer treatment in human patients, this study shows that by programming T cells with CARs specific for markers associated with senescent cells, aging This is a new application for improving human health.”
“Many efforts have been made to develop small molecule drugs to eliminate senescent cells.
senolytic therapy . However, these studies are limited by the poorly defined molecular pathways that mediate aging and the associated chronic inflammatory damage to normal tissues during aging.Future research is needed to address this issue. Additionally, it will be important to investigate how research using mouse systems can be applied to senolytic treatments in humans. ”
— Dr. Yi Zhang, Center for Discovery and Innovation Director Member
