{"id":32604,"date":"2025-12-18T16:28:50","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T16:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/?p=32604"},"modified":"2025-12-18T16:28:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T16:28:53","slug":"mit-mrna-breakthrough-hints-at-rejuvenating-aging-immune-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/mit-mrna-breakthrough-hints-at-rejuvenating-aging-immune-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"MIT mRNA Breakthrough Hints at Rejuvenating Aging Immune Systems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-blockquote uagb-block-e7eb3fc3 uagb-blockquote__skin-border uagb-blockquote__stack-img-none\"><blockquote class=\"uagb-blockquote\"><div class=\"uagb-blockquote__content\">MIT and Broad Institute researchers used mRNA to turn the liver into a temporary immune-support \u201cfactory\u201d in aging mice. The approach restored T cell strength, improved vaccine responses and made cancer immunotherapy work better.<\/div><footer><div class=\"uagb-blockquote__author-wrap uagb-blockquote__author-at-left\"><\/div><\/footer><\/blockquote><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-content-justification-space-between is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-b0ffac9c wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\"><div style=\"font-size:16px\" class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-post-author\"><div class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\"><p class=\"wp-block-post-author__name\">The University Network<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share uagb-social-share__outer-wrap uagb-social-share__layout-horizontal uagb-block-ee584a31\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share-child uagb-ss-repeater uagb-ss__wrapper uagb-block-ec619ce7\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__link\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"facebook\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-wrap\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\"><path d=\"M504 256C504 119 393 8 256 8S8 119 8 256c0 123.8 90.69 226.4 209.3 245V327.7h-63V256h63v-54.64c0-62.15 37-96.48 93.67-96.48 27.14 0 55.52 4.84 55.52 4.84v61h-31.28c-30.8 0-40.41 19.12-40.41 38.73V256h68.78l-11 71.69h-57.78V501C413.3 482.4 504 379.8 504 256z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share-child uagb-ss-repeater uagb-ss__wrapper uagb-block-32d99934\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__link\" data-href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"twitter\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-wrap\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\"><path d=\"M389.2 48h70.6L305.6 224.2 487 464H345L233.7 318.6 106.5 464H35.8L200.7 275.5 26.8 48H172.4L272.9 180.9 389.2 48zM364.4 421.8h39.1L151.1 88h-42L364.4 421.8z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share-child uagb-ss-repeater uagb-ss__wrapper uagb-block-1d136f14\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__link\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"linkedin\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-wrap\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 448 512\"><path d=\"M416 32H31.9C14.3 32 0 46.5 0 64.3v383.4C0 465.5 14.3 480 31.9 480H416c17.6 0 32-14.5 32-32.3V64.3c0-17.8-14.4-32.3-32-32.3zM135.4 416H69V202.2h66.5V416zm-33.2-243c-21.3 0-38.5-17.3-38.5-38.5S80.9 96 102.2 96c21.2 0 38.5 17.3 38.5 38.5 0 21.3-17.2 38.5-38.5 38.5zm282.1 243h-66.4V312c0-24.8-.5-56.7-34.5-56.7-34.6 0-39.9 27-39.9 54.9V416h-66.4V202.2h63.7v29.2h.9c8.9-16.8 30.6-34.5 62.9-34.5 67.2 0 79.7 44.3 79.7 101.9V416z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A new study from MIT and the Broad Institute suggests it may one day be possible to turn back the clock on the aging immune system \u2014 not by rebuilding organs, but by briefly reprogramming the body to act like them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In experiments with older mice, scientists used messenger RNA, or mRNA, to temporarily turn liver cells into a kind of immune-support \u201cfactory.\u201d That boost helped aging animals produce more and better-functioning T cells, the white blood cells that hunt down infected or cancerous cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The treated mice mounted stronger responses to vaccines and lived longer when given cancer immunotherapy compared with untreated peers, pointing to a potential new way to help people stay healthier as they age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The work, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-025-09873-4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">published<\/a> in the journal Nature, started from a simple but pressing question, according to lead author Mirco Friedrich, a former MIT postdoctoral researcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs we get older, the immune system begins to decline. We wanted to think about how can we maintain this kind of immune protection for a longer period of time, and that&#8217;s what led us to think about what we can do to boost immunity,\u201d Friedrich said in a news release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The study&#8217;s senior author is Feng Zhang, the James and Patricia Poitras Professor of Neuroscience at MIT, an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT,\u00a0a core institute member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and co-director of the K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Center for Molecular Therapeutics at MIT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Aging\u2019s hidden weak spot: the thymus<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The work targets a quiet but dramatic change that happens in nearly everyone: the shrinking of the thymus, a small organ in front of the heart that trains immature T cells and helps them survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In youth, the thymus churns out a diverse army of T cells, each tuned to recognize different threats. It also secretes growth factors and signaling proteins called cytokines that help these cells mature and persist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But starting in early adulthood, the thymus begins to wither in a process known as thymic involution. By about age 75 in humans, it is largely nonfunctional, and the body produces far fewer new T cells. That decline leaves older adults more vulnerable to infections, less responsive to vaccines and often less able to benefit from cutting-edge cancer immunotherapies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Previous efforts to rejuvenate immunity have tried flooding the bloodstream with T cell growth factors or regenerating thymus tissue using stem cells. Those strategies can be powerful but may carry safety risks or be difficult to deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Zhang\u2019s team took a different tack: instead of regrowing the thymus, they asked whether another organ could temporarily stand in for some of its functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur approach is more of a synthetic approach,\u201d Zhang said in the news release. \u201cWe&#8217;re engineering the body to mimic thymic factor secretion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Turning the liver into a temporary immune \u201cfactory\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The researchers chose the liver as their stand-in organ. The liver is a natural protein-production powerhouse, remains active even in old age, and is relatively easy to target with mRNA delivered in tiny fat bubbles called lipid nanoparticles. It also filters all of the body\u2019s blood, meaning circulating T cells regularly pass through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team identified three key molecular signals that support T cell development and survival: DLL1, FLT-3 and IL-7. They then encoded instructions for making these factors into mRNA, similar to the technology used in many COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When injected into the bloodstream, the lipid nanoparticles carrying these mRNA instructions accumulated in the liver. Liver cells, or hepatocytes, took up the mRNA and briefly began producing the three immune-supporting proteins, effectively turning the organ into a temporary thymus-like \u201cfactory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because mRNA molecules are short-lived, the effect is transient. In the study, the scientists gave 18-month-old mice \u2014 roughly equivalent to humans in their 50s \u2014 multiple injections over four weeks to maintain steady production of the thymus-like factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Immune systems in older mice spring back<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After treatment, the aging mice showed a marked rebound in their T cell populations. Their T cells were not only more numerous but also functionally stronger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To see if that translated into real-world protection, the team vaccinated the mice with ovalbumin, a protein commonly used in immunology experiments. In treated 18-month-old mice, the population of cytotoxic T cells specifically targeting ovalbumin doubled compared with untreated animals of the same age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The researchers then tested whether the liver \u201cfactory\u201d could help older mice fight cancer. They implanted tumors into 18-month-old mice and treated them with a checkpoint inhibitor drug that targets PD-L1, a protein that normally dampens T cell activity. These drugs, a mainstay of modern cancer immunotherapy, can unleash T cells against tumors but often work less well in older patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mice that received both the mRNA treatment and the checkpoint inhibitor had higher survival rates and lived longer than mice that received the cancer drug alone, the study found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team also showed that all three factors \u2014 DLL1, FLT-3 and IL-7 \u2014 were required to achieve the full immune boost. No single signal could reproduce all of the benefits on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A vision of healthier aging<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The work is still in its early stages and has so far only been tested in mice. Much more research will be needed before any similar approach could be tried in humans, including studies in additional animal models and careful safety testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The researchers plan to explore whether adding other signaling molecules could further enhance immune function and to examine how the treatment affects other immune cells, such as B cells, which produce antibodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, the findings hint at a future in which aging immune systems could be periodically tuned up, rather than simply accepted as an inevitable decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ultimate goal is to extend the years people can live free from disease, according to Zhang. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf we can restore something essential like the immune system, hopefully we can help people stay free of disease for a longer span of their life,\u201d Zhang added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By using mRNA to briefly rewire the body\u2019s own organs into a supportive immune \u201cfactory,\u201d the study points to a new way of thinking about aging: not as a one-way slide, but as a process that might be nudged, at least in part, back toward youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:14px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.mit.edu\/2025\/new-study-suggests-way-rejuvenate-immune-system-1217\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MIT and Broad Institute researchers used mRNA to turn the liver into a temporary immune-support \u201cfactory\u201d in aging mice. The approach restored T cell strength, improved vaccine responses and made cancer immunotherapy work better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-no-separators","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[103],"class_list":["post-32604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","tag-mit"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"The University Network","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/author\/funky_junkie\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"MIT and Broad Institute researchers used mRNA to turn the liver into a temporary immune-support \u201cfactory\u201d in aging mice. The approach restored T cell strength, improved vaccine responses and made cancer immunotherapy work better.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32604"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32630,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32604\/revisions\/32630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}