It has been said that “life is old age, sickness and death” and that old age and sickness are indeed often seen together, so the fight against aging may start with rejuvenating the immune system. In a new study, scientists have found an anti-aging immunotherapy that works by rejuvenating immune cells to better remove the senescent cells that cause aging, and thus maintain better functioning of the entire tissue and system.
New Atlas reports that each cell has a finite life, and when it reaches the end of its life, it forms senescent cells, which have stopped dividing but refuse to die, causing tissue errors. When we are young, the immune system detects and destroys these senescent cells and completes the cellular metabolism. However, as time passes, the immune system ages and their ability to detect errors decreases, leading to the accumulation of senescent cells in our bodies and the overall system to develop symptoms of aging and related diseases.
For example, the thymus gland, an immune tissue located in the chest, is well developed and blunted, just in line with the human development process. In childhood, the thymus gland weighs about 15-20 grams, and at puberty, it reaches 30-40 grams, which is the most youthful and energetic stage of human beings. However, after puberty, the thymus gland gradually shrinks with age, and after middle age, the thymus gland is gradually infiltrated by fat cells, and its function begins to decline, and in old age, the thymus gland function is almost lost, just in time to cope with the weakening of the immune system in old age.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), therefore, set out to find a way to recharge the immune system. Their target was to strengthen natural killer T cells (NKT), a type of immune cell responsible for searching for aging cells and actively hunting them down.
The researchers found that NKT cells can be reactivated using lipid antigens, and that they are consistently effective in removing senescent cells and maintaining the overall health of the tissue system. The team says that NKT cells are useful for two main reasons: first, NKT has a unique cell receptor, so the activation effect does not appear on other cells, so the side effects are minimal and can be said to be modified for NKT; second, NKT will automatically go into a dormant state after working for a period of time, so that the treatment does not get out of control.
The research team conducted this immunotherapy experiment in mice with two unhealthy conditions, obesity and pulmonary fibrosis, and the results showed that the number of senescent cells did decrease compared to the control group, and good results were obtained. In the obese mice, their blood sugar control improved, while in the mice with pulmonary fibrosis, lung function did not continue to deteriorate, and both groups of mice had a significant increase in life expectancy.
I think this could be considered a potential immunotherapy for aging and tissue fibrosis,” said study author Mallar Bhattacharya. And I believe this therapy has few side effects, and we only need dose control.”
After completing the initial tests in mice, the researchers took human cells in a culture dish and conducted further tests. It turned out that the NKT cells could also remove senescent cells from human tissue, so the petri dish experiment was considered a success. The future phase will encounter clinical field tests, for which the research team has set up a spin-off company that is currently handling the prep for the clinical study, which will hopefully be implemented in the next few years.
This new technology, which can be considered as the 2nd generation of immunotherapy, is the result of a previous generation of technology called “senolytics”, which also aims to remove senescent cells. Early studies of senolytics have proven promising, even extending the life span of mice by more than a third in experiments.
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