Interferon-Related Inflammaging Links Epigenetic Age Acceleration To Multimorbidity
Have you ever wondered why some people seem to age faster than others, or why aging often brings a host of health issues? Scientists have been exploring two key aspects of aging: “inflammaging,” which is a persistent, low-level inflammation throughout the body, and “epigenetic age acceleration,” which means your biological age is advancing more quickly than your chronological age.
Recent findings shed light on a crucial link between these two phenomena. It turns out that a specific part of our immune system, called the interferon pathway, plays a significant role. This pathway, usually active in fighting infections, appears to become overactive with age. Researchers discovered that certain inflammatory proteins, or “cytokines,” like CXCL9 and CXCL10, which are part of this interferon pathway, increase as we get older. These elevated cytokines don’t just signal inflammation; they actually drive the acceleration of our biological age at a cellular level.
This accelerated cellular aging, in turn, contributes to “multimorbidity,” which is the presence of multiple chronic diseases in one individual. Essentially, the constant low-grade activation of this immune pathway pushes our bodies to age faster and makes us more susceptible to various age-related conditions. Understanding this connection means that targeting the interferon pathway could offer new strategies for developing interventions to promote healthier aging and reduce the burden of age-related diseases.
Source: link to paper