Tip For Health

November 13, 2021

Credit

Tran Thi Phuong Chi, Pharm.

How aging affects your immune system

As people age, the immune system becomes less effective in the following ways:

  • The immune system becomes less able to distinguish self from nonself (that is, to identify foreign antigens). As a result, autoimmune disorders become more common.
  • Macrophages (which ingest bacteria and other foreign cells) destroy bacteria, cancer cells, and other antigens more slowly. This slowdown may be one reason that cancer is more common among older people.
  • T cells (which remember antigens they have previously encountered) respond less quickly to the antigens.
  • There are fewer white blood cells capable of responding to new antigens. Thus, when older people encounter a new antigen, the body is less able to remember and defend against it.
  • Older people have smaller amounts of complement proteins and do not produce as many of these proteins as younger people do in response to bacterial infections.
  • Although the amount of antibody produced in response to an antigen remains about the same overall, the antibodies become less able to attach to the antigen. This change may partly explain why pneumonia, influenza, infective endocarditis, and tetanus are more common among older people and result in death more often. These changes may also partly explain why vaccines are less effective in older people and thus why it is important for older people to get booster shots (which are available for some vaccines).

These changes in immune function may contribute to the greater susceptibility of older people to some infections and cancers.

Source: MSD Manual

About STELLAPHARM

Stellapharm is one of leading generics pharmaceutical companies and strong producer of anti-viral drugs in Vietnam. The company established in Vietnam in 2000; and focuses on both prescription drugs and non-prescription especially in cardiovascular diseases, antiviral drugs, anti-diabetics drugs, etc. and our products are now used by millions of patients in more than 50 countries worldwide.

The company is globally recognized for its quality through our facilities have been audited and approved by stringent authority like EMA, PMDA, Taiwan GMP, local WHO and others.

Additional information for this article: Stellapharm J.V. Co., Ltd. – Branch 1
A: 40 Tu Do Avenue, Vietnam – Singapore Industrial Park, An Phu Ward, Thuan An City, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam
T: +84 274 376 7470 | F: +84 274 376 7469 | E: info@stellapharm.com | W: www.stellapharm.com

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