Immune System Aging is a Major Contribution to Neurodegeneration (opens in new tab)

The immune system becomes dysfunctional with age. On the one hand it becomes overly active and inflammatory, a state known as inflammaging. Many of the forms of cell and tissue damage characteristic of aging can provoke the immune system into an inflammatory response. One example is the increasingly well studied mislocalization of mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA fragments within the cell. This mislocalized DNA triggers sensors that evolved to detect viruses and bacteria, leading to cells al...