have we found the answer to aging?
ELIZABETH CONNER – Aging is something that we all fear. However, a lengthy life expectancy is both intimidating and hard to come by. So we think. From 1990 to 2023, the average life expectancy globally has increased from 31 to right above 73– a seemingly large increase for such a short amount of time. Whether improvements in technology or better knowledge of diseases have impacted this number, the differences in what makes certain individuals live longer than others has remained unknown. Luckily, research conducted by Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and Tufts Medical Center has found that centenarians, a person aged above 100, possess unique immune cells that may be impacting the longevity of their life.
As we age, it is thought that our immune response decreases. Rather than the ability to fight infection quickly, we begin to encounter what is called “immunosenescence” or age-related immune dysfunction. Therefore, diseases like cancer and infection are more readily contracted and more difficult to combat since the ability to adapt is slowly lost. However, this process is not congruent among all humans; centenarians possess immune profiles that remain highly-functional despite exposure to infection and the time taken to recover from them.
Specifically, the study completed by Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and Tufts Medical Center discovered the diversity in the immune response of centenarians by using a single-cell RNA sequencing technique of peripheral blood mononuclear cells– a specific type of immune cell. By performing this technique, computational methods helped explain what types of immune cells circulate throughout the lifespan as evidenced by the proportion of different cell types and transcriptional changes of the genes of the certain cells. The analysis of their data revealed that the gene expression of certain cells reflected a normal immune response despite age. Further, certain genes were able to be characterized as “age-specific” in terms of relative expression across an immune profile.
Therefore, maybe the reason certain people live longer than others is not because of their healthy habits or riveting rituals but rather the result of an “elite-immunity” that allows centenarians to defy the odds of aging. I will still eat my apple a day to make sure those impending infections are resisted, but hopefully, the results of this research will pave a way for anti-aging therapeutics and a better understanding of what happens to our body as we age.
Copy Editor – Priya Jani
Photography Source – https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-aging-2224347