Emerging treatments aim to reverse or stall signs of aging in the body and thus cut the risk of age-related diseases. One of those signs is an accumulation of "zombie cells" — damaged cells that spew harmful substances rather than dying off and getting cleared away by the immune system.
Some scientists are designing treatments aimed at killing those zombies directly. But what if we instead helped the body's cleanup crew get rid of them?
"I think rejuvenating the immune system could rectify a lot of problems," said Roel de Maeyer, an immunologist at the University of Oxford. "We know hospitals are full of older people suffering from infections that younger people don't need to go to [the] hospital for."
The aim of these rejuvenating therapies would be to help people live healthier for longer, he told Live Science.
How do cells turn into zombies?
The immune system constantly gets rid of old, dysfunctional and dead cells to keep tissues healthy, but that cleanup gets less effective with age.
When cells die, they display proteins on their surfaces that act as "eat me" signals for im...
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