Inflammation and Immune System Activation in Aging: A Mathematical Approach

Nikas, Jason B.

The results of my study, in addition to providing evidence for this dual process of chronic, low-level neuroinflammation/immune-system-activation in connection with normal aging, suggest a means of a potential treatment. Regardless of the exact causal sequence of the events, administration of anti-inflammatory drugs/chemicals that can normalize the expression of the aforementioned 27 genes of inflammation/immune-system-activation may decelerate the onset of the aging process, as well as the aging process itself, and mitigate its symptoms by restoring synaptic plasticity throughout the hippocampus and possibly throughout the rest of the brain. Supplementary Table 6 lists all those 27 most significant genes as possible targets for the development of such an anti-inflammatory treatment, along with potential candidate drugs/chemicals that are known (via Ingenuity Pathway Analysis) to interact with those genes.