Biomarkers for Immunosenescence
The aging immune system experiences a decline in its ability to combat pathogens and dysfunctional cells, known as immunosenescence. Assessing immune cell populations and their characteristics to measure the degree of immunosenescence is costly and cannot be done on stored samples. Researchers are exploring whether combinations of circulating proteins can be used as biomarkers to assess immunosenescence from a blood sample, proposing potential biomarkers based on their analysis.
Immunosenescence is characterized by continuous chronic inflammation, known as inflammaging. This condition affects older individuals and can also occur in young people with chronic inflammatory conditions. Detecting immunosenescence typically involves examining the immune risk profile (IRP), which is not always accessible in health facilities, particularly in developing countries. Biomarkers that can be tested using stored serum samples would make it easier to diagnose immunosenescence.
The researchers propose using soluble biomarkers that represent immune cell activities and exhaustion, such as sCD163, sCD28, sCD80, and sCTLA-4, which have been reported to be elevated in chronic diseases that cause early aging. These markers can be easily detected from serum samples using the ELISA method, unlike the IRP. Therefore, the researchers suggest that these soluble markers are beneficial for predicting the pathological condition of immunosenescence.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12979-023-00405-0
