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University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers have discovered a key driver of chronic inflammation that accelerates aging. That finding could let us slow the clock to live longer, healthier lives, and may allow us to prevent age-related conditions such as deadly heart disease and devastating brain disorders that rob us of our faculties.
So what drives this harmful inflammation? The answer is improper calcium signaling in the mitochondria of certain immune cells. Mitochondria are the power generators in all cells, and they rely heavily on calcium signaling.
The UVA Health researchers, led by Bimal N. Desai, PhD, found that mitochondria in immune cells called macrophages lose their ability to take up and use calcium with age. This, the researchers show, leads to chronic inflammation responsible for many of the ailments that afflict our later years.
The researchers believe that increasing calcium uptake by the mitochondrial macrophages could prevent the harmful inflammation and its terrible effects. Because macrophages reside in all organs of our bodies, including the brain, targeting such "tissue-resident macrophages" with appropriate drugs may allow us to slow age-associated neurodegenerative diseases.
"I think we have made a key conceptual breakthrough in understanding the molecular underpinnings of age-associated inflammation," said Desai, of UVA's Department of Pharmacology and UVA's Carter Immunology Center. "This discovery illuminates new therapeutic strategies to interdict the inflammatory cascades that lie at the heart of many cardiometabolic and neurodegenerative diseases."
The Inflammation of Aging -- 'Inflammaging'
Macrophages are white blood cells that play critical roles in our immune systems and, in turn, our good health. They swallow up dead or dying cells, allowing our bodies to remove cellular debris, and patrol for pathogens and other foreign invaders. In this latter role, they act as important sentries for our immune systems, calling for help from other immune cells as needed.
So what drives this harmful inflammation? The answer is improper calcium signaling in the mitochondria of certain immune cells. Mitochondria are the power generators in all cells, and they rely heavily on calcium signaling.
The UVA Health researchers, led by Bimal N. Desai, PhD, found that mitochondria in immune cells called macrophages lose their ability to take up and use calcium with age. This, the researchers show, leads to chronic inflammation responsible for many of the ailments that afflict our later years.
The researchers believe that increasing calcium uptake by the mitochondrial macrophages could prevent the harmful inflammation and its terrible effects. Because macrophages reside in all organs of our bodies, including the brain, targeting such "tissue-resident macrophages" with appropriate drugs may allow us to slow age-associated neurodegenerative diseases.
"I think we have made a key conceptual breakthrough in understanding the molecular underpinnings of age-associated inflammation," said Desai, of UVA's Department of Pharmacology and UVA's Carter Immunology Center. "This discovery illuminates new therapeutic strategies to interdict the inflammatory cascades that lie at the heart of many cardiometabolic and neurodegenerative diseases."
The Inflammation of Aging -- 'Inflammaging'
Macrophages are white blood cells that play critical roles in our immune systems and, in turn, our good health. They swallow up dead or dying cells, allowing our bodies to remove cellular debris, and patrol for pathogens and other foreign invaders. In this latter role, they act as important sentries for our immune systems, calling for help from other immune cells as needed.