{"id":235765,"date":"2026-04-23T06:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/immune-molecule-long-tied-to-inflammation-may-benefit-the-aging-brain"},"modified":"2026-04-23T06:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:12:13","slug":"immune-molecule-long-tied-to-inflammation-may-benefit-the-aging-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/immune-molecule-long-tied-to-inflammation-may-benefit-the-aging-brain","title":{"rendered":"Immune molecule long tied to inflammation may benefit the aging brain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/immune-molecule-long-tied-to-inflammation-may-benefit-the-aging-brain2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Inflammation in the brain is usually seen as harmful in the aging process\u2014it\u2019s thought to contribute to Alzheimer\u2019s and dementia. But a new study in mice suggests that inflammation, led by an immune molecule called STING (stimulator of interferon genes), might have a role in protecting the aging brain. The findings also have implications for new experimental Alzheimer\u2019s drugs that are designed to block STING.<\/p>\n<p>For the study published in <a href=\"https:\/\/linkinghub.elsevier.com\/retrieve\/pii\/S2211124725005200\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Cell Reports<\/i><\/a>, scientists at Tufts University School of Medicine examined brain function, inflammation, and movement in <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/mice\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">mice<\/a> genetically engineered to lack STING, compared with normal controls. They found that mice without STING had worse memory and movement problems, mimicking the senility and frailty seen in people with dementia and Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur data suggest that the <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/inflammatory+processes\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">inflammatory processes<\/a> that STING supports may actually be necessary for the brain to stay healthy and in balance during old age,\u201d says Shruti Sharma, an assistant professor of immunology at Tufts University School of Medicine and the study\u2019s senior author.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inflammation in the brain is usually seen as harmful in the aging process\u2014it\u2019s thought to contribute to Alzheimer\u2019s and dementia. But a new study in mice suggests that inflammation, led by an immune molecule called STING (stimulator of interferon genes), might have a role in protecting the aging brain. The findings also have implications for [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412,269,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-life-extension","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}