A cell factor linked to aging compromises the activation of the immune defenses to the flu virus, to the detriment of the tissues.
A protein produced in greater concentrations of age could partially explain why the influence generally has a more serious course in elderly people. The discovery, published in the magazine Pnascould help develop treatments that protect the elderly from the most serious results of the seasonal influence.
A waterfall of negative events
A research group that involved Chinese and British universities has identified a cellular factor produced in the body of the elderly to a greater extent than that of young people who reduce the ability of patients to resist infections and opens the way to damage extended to the fabrics.
This substance is the Apolipoprotein D (Apod), a protein involved in the metabolism of lipids and in the inflammatory mechanisms: its high production in the lungs during the influence reduces the activation of the antiviral defenses because it causes damage extended to the mitochondria, the energy plants of the cells.
The mitochondria provide the cells with the necessary energy so that these can recall interferons (an immune alarm signal) in the event of viral infection. With the defenses lowered, a greater amount of viruses and the damage to the lungs are produced are more extensive.
A target for possible therapies
Scientists deepened the cellular mechanism that could contribute to the severity of the influence in the elderly by studying aging models in mice and analyzing sections of fabrics extracted from human donors.
The idea is that pharmacological interventions that inhibit the production of the Apod protein in people of advanced age can contribute to reducing the severity of influence and its lethality in this population of population, increasing due to the lengthening of average life.
