TNF α Blockade Prevents Sarcopenia and Increases Life Span in Mice

Today's open access research reports a sizable effect on sarcopenia in aged mice via blockade of TNFα, an inflammatory signal molecule associated with cellular senescence and generated by senescent cells. Sarcopenia is the progressive loss of muscle mass and strength that takes place with age, more severely in some individuals than in others, but everyone is affected. The drug used in the study is Etanercept, already widely employed to treat autoimmune conditions. It functions as a decoy receptor, binding circulating TNFα to prevent it from interacting with cell receptors to trigger detrimental changes in cell behavior. The outcome of note is that treated mice maintain muscle volume from 12 to 22 months of age, while controls lose ~20% of muscle volume over the same period. Etanercept is not a drug that one would take for the long term on a whim. Like most existing approaches to suppressing immune overactivation in autoimmune conditions, it is a blunt tool. It suppresses immune signaling and activity across the board, both necessary and inappropriate, and the side effects thus include a potentially dangerous weakening of the immune response to infection. In this case the drug is a tool for the purposes of research, not a potential treatment. It is used to produce what looks a lot like a confirmation of the role of senescent cell accumulation and consequent chronic inflammatory signaling in the onset of sarcopenia with age. One possible way to remove a sizable portion...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs