Researchers Find New Immunotherapy Techniques That Fight Against Aging Symptoms by Acting against Senescent Cells

May, 2021 - By SMI

A new study carried out at the University of California investigated about immunotherapy techniques that can combat with age-related illness.

Senescent cell is one of the main signs of aging in a human body. These cells do not self-divide and do not degenerate with time. In a young individual, the immune system detects and destroys these senescent cells, however the immune system loses it efficiency of identifying these senescent cells in the body with age. These senescent cells are then responsible for the physical symptoms of aging, as well as for many other age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, cataract, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and Alzheimer's disease, among others.

Moreover, researchers at the University of California have found a new way to boost up the immune system so that they can naturally detect and destroy the senescent cells in the body. The researchers studied about the invariant natural killer T cells (iNKT) cells and how to activate these cells. Their study also showed that the lipid antigens are able to activate these iNKT cells in a human body. The team then tested their new immunotherapy treatment in mice groups suffering from two different health issues such as obesity and lung fibrosis that increase the number of senescent cells. When the researchers tested this immunotherapy technique using activated iNKT cells they found that in both the experimental groups, the number of senescent cells decreased, when compared to control mice. Researchers observed that in obese mice, the glucose control improved after the immunotherapy experiment, while the mice group that suffered from lung fibrosis showcased less damaged cells after the immunotherapy.

When the immunotherapy technique was carried out in human cells it was found that these iNKT cells are indeed capable of wiping out the senescent cells in human body as well. The researchers however stated that further dosing tests and trails are required for the research as a part of their future studies, in order to provide well tolerated immunotherapy to patients in the future.