Towards More Selective Ways to Block Unwanted Inflammation

Control of chronic inflammation may turn out to be one of the more important themes in the treatment of aging as a medical condition. Senescent cells generate inflammatory signaling, but removing that contribution is likely the easiest aspect of the problem. Many forms of age-related cellular damage and dysfunction generate constant, unwanted, excess inflammation through interactions and signals that are used during a normal, desirable inflammatory reaction, such as to injury or infection. Thus interfering in these mechanisms must be very selective; simply blockading a given signal has undesirable side-effects, such as a weakening of the immune response. A fair amount of the research aimed at producing more selective anti-inflammatory treatments is focused on STING, as many pro-inflammatory mechanisms associated with age and disease involve this protein, and it can act in many different ways. As researchers note here, perhaps this is a place to start in the search for better approaches to dampening the chronic inflammation of aging. A type of T cell known as an effector memory T cell (Tem) can become a critical driver of cytokine storms. The chain reaction appears to start when Tem cells interact with dendritic cells, which serve as the immune system's primary detector of viral and bacterial invasions. When the immune system wins the battle, most of the custom T cells stand down. But a few guards linger in the blood and other body tissues to be ready to "effect" a ra...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs