Towards a Small Molecule Approach to Thymic Regeneration

The thymus is vital to a sustained and functional immune system. Thymocytes generated in the bone marrow migrate to the thymus, where a complex process of maturation and selection takes place, turning the thymocytes into T cells of the adaptive immune system. T cells must be capable of recognizing and reacting to pathogens and cancerous cells, without mistakenly attacking any of the normal systems of the body and its diverse cell population. That risk of self-immunity is the price of an adaptive immune system. The wide range of autoimmune conditions observed in the human population demonstrates that evolution does not produce infallible mechanisms. The thymus atrophies with age, the active tissue replaced with fat. This reduces the supply of T cells, and in the absence of reinforcements the adaptive immune system relies increasingly on replication of peripheral immune cells to maintain its population. This leads to an aged immune system consisting of ever more harmful, senescent, exhausted, or otherwise problematic T cells. It is a sizable contribution to the age-related decline of immune function into chronic inflammation and incapacity. There are many possible approaches to regeneration of the thymus, all of which have their issues. The thymus is a small, deep organ, which makes it hard to deliver therapies in a high enough dose without direct injection, and direct injection of that nature is probably too risky for widespread use. Mortality rates for similar p...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs