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RE: The quest for elixir of life - Episode 3 - Inflammageing

in #steemstem • 6 years ago

I think of a few autoimmune illnesses that are more common later in life, such as autoimmune encephalitis, which usually strikes over the age of 55. Is that because of the accumulated, lifetime burden of inflammation, or because the body cannot defend any longer against the assault? Also, I guess with diabetes.

6 years ago in #steemstem by
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     6 years ago 

    I am not aware of clear direction that have been established to know the cause and effect. But provided the current knowledge, what you said seems likely. There are however few more factors to be considered. For instance the amount of auro-antibodies produced also goes up with ageing. There might be a few reasons for this - 1) The regulatory lymphocytes (TRegs, for instance) function declines with ageing. These are the cells that acts like police to mellow down things. A component of complement system such as c1q also interacts with mitochondria in deciding the fate of some adaptive immune cells - how will they respond to self-antigens. Since we know mitochondria gets fucked up in ageing, this may also be another axis for autoantibody production.

    The third axis is more in relation to your question. It has been shown body can produce auto-antibodies against inflammatory cytokines. Their function is mostly to neutralize the cytokines, such as TNFalpha. While this might have some benefits in a long run - such as in chronic low grade systemic inflammation it may break the immune cells tolerance to self-antigens. This may exaggerate the autoimmune related inflammation at the site. And, hence act towards promotion of auto-immune diseases.

    However, further studies are required to establish a clean mechanistic picture. As of now these are most likely hypotheses which can be considered. On the other hand autoimmune condition may promote inflammation and accelerate ageing. There are some suggestions floating around the idea of testing drugs given in auto-immune diseases for other ageing pathologies.

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     6 years ago 

    Thank you for that thorough explanation. In my family, we have a rather uncommon incidence of autoimmune diseases--a couple that are rather rare. Not all of these were expressed later in life, but several were. It's always fascinated me how our friend (the immune system) becomes our enemy, and sometimes ferociously.

    I will be rereading your response slowly and carefully so I understand more.

    I love this line

    Since we know mitochondria gets fucked up in ageing

    Thanks for that:)

    I enjoy your blogs. They are science, but I sense in them a tinge of compassion for those who are affected by the hard reality of science.

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     6 years ago 

    Thanks for those last lines. Means a lot :)

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