Specially engineered ‘young’ immune cells could help to reverse the effects of aging and the damage to brain cells caused by diseases such as Alzheimer’s, according to a new study in mice.
In their natural state, these immune cells are known as mononuclear phagocytes, and they flow around the body, cleaning up waste.
As we get older, however, these immune-cell cleaners get a bit sloppy, clearing away less cellular debris and triggering more inflammation than before. Inflammation and protein aggregation are features of many age-related diseases, including Alzheimer’s.
This is promising, but I wonder how scalable it will be for humans. The fact that it worked in mice is great, but it seems like a big leap to translate this to human trials. Still, a very exciting step in Alzheimer’s research.