Why is there not an immortal(ish) mouse yet?

[John_Hemming]

This is something I got from Nick Lane’s book “The Vital Question”. I need to hunt down the references for this

[Olafurpall]

Sorry for the super late reply.

@Joseph_Lavelle

Why do you suppose rapamycin improves vaccine response (Levine study) and seems (anecdotally) to reduce sensitivity to allergens (airborne at least), if it isn’t rejuvenating the immune system?

I think it’s acting as an immunomodulator in this case. Note that the vaccine study was relatively short. My guess is that if they stopped taking rapamycin at the end of the study their vaccine responses would have declined back to baseline. However, this doesn’t mean that it might also slow down aging of the immune system. It probably does to some degree. But I think that would take longer time to become significant.

@Joseph_Lavelle

And thoughts on how to reduce the rate of aging of the immune system? Some guesses…

That’s a big question. There are so many parts of the immune system that change with aging like thymus involution, myeloid bias, hematopoietic stem cell aging, accumulation of memory T-cells and more. Calorie restriction and exercise definitely helps slow down some parts of the aging of the immune system over the long run. One part of the aging of the immune system can likely be slowed down by trying to get sick less often. Every time you get sick your immunological space gets fuller, which reduces adaptive immunity (it’s one reason why old people respond less effectively to vaccines). Other possible solutions are to rejuvenate the hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow or deplete the B cells.

@Joseph_Lavelle

Rapa to reduce the SASP burden while boosting autophagy to clean up the system?

I think that could possibly help indirectly.

@Joseph_Lavelle

HGH (with metformin and dhea) for thymus rejuvenation?

Yes, some variation of the Greg Fahy thymus rejuvenation protocol could definitely help, although I’m afraid the HGH would accelerate aging of the body in other ways, so it’s not neccesarily a net positive even though it might help rejuvenate the thymus somewhat. There are various other possible ways to rejuvenate the thymus that are under development.

@Joseph_Lavelle

Lower ectopic fat deposits: get fat deposits out of bone marrow, get fat out of organs causing high blood sugar / insulin resistance causing CVD and reduced brain blood flow, stop poor blood flow of nutrients to over-full fat storage causing chronic inflammation?

Reduce iron overload to reduce oxidation and inflammation?

Most of these are things that could possibly help reduce aging of the immune system indirectly, because everything is somewhat connected if only indirectly.

[Joseph_Lavelle]

@Olafurpall

One part of the aging of the immune system can likely be slowed down by trying to get sick less often. Every time you get sick your immunological space gets fuller, which reduces adaptive immunity (it’s one reason why old people respond less effectively to vaccines).

This is scary. I believe it, and it speaks to career selection. My mom was a teacher. Also healthcare people. Not paid well enough. It also speaks to the perils of raising children, which also pays poorly.

[DeStrider]

But then, some of the longest living people are teachers. Maybe the job satisfaction and lower stress trump any immune degradation?