Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have found a group of aging patients who have an immune system like that of someone much younger. It’s a trait that appears to be common among many Minnesotans, and the discovery could be key to helping others stave off disease.
Cornelia Weyand, a physician investigator and rheumatologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, published her research alongside co author Jörg Goronzy in mid August. She says people with this “fountain of youth” characteristic have special stem cells that help preserve immune system function.
“I say to my patients, ‘Well, your immune system is that of a teenager, and it lives in the body of a 75-year-old,’” Weyand said.
At a time when the population is aging and living longer than ever before — termed as the “Gray Tsunami” — Weyand said it’s all the more crucial that researchers focus on how patients can not only live longer, but live better. And a healthy immune system, which prevents disease and infection, can enable that.
Mayo is not alone in this quest. Weyand said scientists around the world are trying to understand how to maintain a strong immune system. She’s now trying to figure out how to translate these findings to help others who don’t come by the characteristic naturally.
However, people with this characteristic can be prone to autoimmune disease later in life, and Weyand and other researchers want to negate that risk.
“Having these cells, which are, in principle, very good cells, this is the price you pay,” Weyand said. “[The cells] are young and rambunctious. They are so young and so rambunctious that they go a bit overboard. And the result of that is this disease.”
That’s actually how her team made this discovery. They were studying patients with giant cell arthritis, a blood vessel disease, and found that these patients, despite the disease, had youthful immune systems. Weyand said many of these patients were surprised to find themselves sick after avoiding hospital stays for much of their lives.
There’s likely a genetic element, and it appears to be more common in Minnesota and other areas of the upper Midwest than it is in the rest of the country, Weyand said. This is due to the state’s Scandinavian roots.
“The Minnesotans are, of course, very special people,” Weyand said. “It was certainly not easy for our ancestors to live in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland. These were very harsh environments. So I think there is some genetic pressure that they had to be healthy to [survive].”
Weyand and her team are in the midst of further research, and she said she’s excited about the strides they’ve made thus far. Now their focus is to figure out how this disease develops in people and how to promote the good cells in others without the risk.
Weyand explained her thought process like this:
“How can we make the immune system strong enough that it can protect us from cancer and infections as we get older, and yet keep it contained enough that it is not over-spilling and attacking the body? I think we need to learn this from nature. Nature needs to be our guide.”
