Posted on 12/13/2010 3:26:11 PM PST by decimon
UCSF researchers have identified an existing medication that restores key elements of the immune system that, when out of balance, lead to a steady decline in immunity and health as people age.
The team found that extremely low doses of the drug lenalidomide can stimulate the body’s immune-cell protein factories, which decrease production during aging, and rebalance the levels of several key cytokines – immune proteins that either attack viruses and bacteria or cause inflammation that leads to an overall decline in health.
The initial study, which was designed to define the dose range of such a therapy in a group of 13 patients, could lead to a daily pill to boost immunity in the elderly, the researchers said. Data will appear in the January issue of the journal Clinical Immunology, and can be found online at www.elsevier.com/locate/yclim.
The identification of a drug to reverse the immunological decline in aging, known as immunosenescence, is the culmination of years of research by Edward J. Goetzl, MD, at UCSF and the National Institute on Aging, into how cytokine levels change as people age, how that varies by gender, and which changes dictate whether someone will be healthy into their 90s or begin a downward cycle of decline starting in middle age.
“No one’s really talking about longevity and lifespan now, but about ‘health span,’” said Goetzl, director of UCSF Allergy and Immunology Research, which focuses on developing new diagnostics and treatments for allergic and immunological diseases.
“If, at age 50, your cytokine levels are the same as they were at 25, you’ll probably stay healthy as you age,” he said. “But if they’re heading downhill, we need to do something about it. If you could take a low-dosage pill with no side effects, wouldn’t you do it?”
(Excerpt) Read more at news.ucsf.edu ...
You have Lyme disease?
“Ask you doctor if REVLIMID® is right for you.”
Yes.
Since this drug is said to rebalance cytokines, I also wondered about its affect in some autoimmune diseases, where cytokines and the rest of the inflammatory cascade are out of kilter.
But it seems counter intuitive to treat an autoimmune disease with a drug that boost the immune system.
Most of the standard treatments are steroids to suppress the immune reaction.
But then many great break through treatments have seemed counter intuitive before they were made.
Damned ticks.
Hope you get better.
Too late for a Va-Jay-Jay tuck.
Me? I’m a what!? ;-)
I guess I should recognize that woman but I don’t.
I pray light is forming at the end of the tunnel - and not the stairwell light to heaven although that is best case scenario.
Hanoi Jane.
Thanks. Didn’t recognize her.
Right journal, lead author, cytokines and drug, but not all the same co-authors
Ignore her face. You can tell her age by her arms.
Old aunt arms.
I was talking to Neverdem about hormesis on another thread.
It is a fascinating subject.
Dose makes the poison.
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