Throughout the pandemic, teens have been warned to be careful not to expose our grandparents to COVID-19, because they’re more likely than younger people to face severe consequences from the illness. If teens had a better understanding of the science behind the warning, they might also better grasp the importance of protecting the elderly from other illnesses as well.
Scientists suggest that the cause of grandma and grandpa’s weakened ability to fight disease could be due to a largely overlooked field of immunology: immunosenescence.
Immunosenescence is the process of how our immune system ages over time. As we grow older, some cells slowly become nonfunctional. Other cells lose all sense of direction, aimlessly floating around in the blood like lost tourists in a busy city [1].
But that’s not even the worst part. Some cells actually turn into zombie-like cells, which become counterproductive and increase infection and inflammation [2].
“The interesting thing about immunosenescence is that these [cells] not only become dysfunctional,” Dr. Marian Laderoute, a former immunology research director, explains. “They also release these proinflammatory factors. Most people view chronic illness as a chronic disease, but it’s not. It’s an immunosenescence disease” [3].
Immunosenescence explains why older people with healthy immune systems can be many times more susceptible to disease than younger people are. It’s not a matter of how strong your immune system is—as you grow older, your body will stop fighting the war against outside pathogens. Instead, it will start fighting itself.
So how do we solve the problem immunosenescence presents?
“Two already available drugs were capable of selectively removing senescent cells from human tissues,” Nathaniel Scharping, a technology and science journalist, writes in his article, Senolytics: A New Weapon in the War on Aging. “[Researchers] called the compounds senolytics.”
According to Scharping, research has shown that senolytics combat the progression of immunosenescence by shutting down our zombie cells: “[After giving] a small group of diabetic kidney patients [senolytics], follow-ups indicated that the number of senescent cells in their bodies had been reduced” [4].
A research paper published by Dr. James Kirkland and Dr. Tamar Tchkonia, two researchers at Mayo Clinic, further describes the effects of senolytics: not only do they help to “attenuate inflammation and alleviate age-related metabolic dysfunction,” but they also appear to “delay and prevent multiple age-related and chronic diseases” [5].
Although many scientists are working on perfecting senolytics and their function in protecting the immune system from immunosenescence, research on this topic has still been very limited. Scientists, such as Dr. Kirkland, are still actively trying to develop senolytics to combat immunosenescence. Currently, however, new discoveries have only been effective against specific immunosenescence diseases.
For now, the best approach we can take to minimize the amount of damage done to those whose immune systems have undergone immunosenescence is to avoid exposing them to illness. Even when the COVID-19 pandemic ends, we should be careful around grandma and grandpa when we’re feeling under the weather.
[1] Aw, Danielle, Alberto B Silva, and Donald B Palmer. “Immunosenescence: Emerging Challenges for an Ageing Population.” Immunology. Blackwell Science Inc, April 2007. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2265901/.
[2] Dolgin, Elie. “Send in the Senolytics.” Nature News. Nature Publishing Group, November 12, 2020. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-020-00750-1.
[3] “Immunosenescence in COVID-19 - Interview with Prof Marian Laderoute and Dr Philip McMillan.” YouTube. YouTube, May 2, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjgUqVXeao4&ab_channel=VejonHealth.
[4] Scharping, Nathaniel. “Senolytics: A New Weapon in the War on Aging.” Discover Magazine. Discover Magazine, August 11, 2020. https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/senolytics-a-new-weapon-in-the-war-on-aging.
[5] Kirkland, J. L., and T. Tchkonia. “Senolytic Drugs: from Discovery to Translation.” Wiley Online Library. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, August 4, 2020. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joim.13141.
