Open AccessA Geroscience Approach to Preventing Pathologic Consequences of COVID-19
Author(s) -
Yan Dou,
Soroosh Fatemi,
Martin Darvas,
Michael Gale,
Warren Ladiges
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of interferon and cytokine research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.031
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1557-7465
pISSN - 1079-9907
DOI - 10.1089/jir.2020.29018.dou
Subject(s) - pandemic , disease , medicine , covid-19 , population , infectious disease (medical specialty) , population ageing , intensive care medicine , immunology , psychological intervention , environmental health , pathology , psychiatry
The essential scope of the coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is focused on developing effective treatments and vaccines for acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. There is also a critical need to develop interventions to prevent the complications of COVID-19, which occur with an alarming frequency in older adults. Since severe pathologic effects of infection occur with increasing age, COVID-19 falls under the geroscience concept that all diseases in older adults have a common and major underlying cause of declining function and resilience. Geroscience posits that manipulation of aging will simultaneously delay the appearance or severity of major diseases because they share the same risk factor: aging and the multiple processes involved in aging. Drug combinations that target multiple aging processes and the cytokine networks associated with them would not necessarily limit SARS-CoV-2 infection rates but would prevent severe pathologic consequences of the disease in older adults by maintaining a more youthful-like resilience to infection-related complications. A drug cocktail aimed at controlling cytokine actions would complement current clinical treatments and vaccine effectiveness for COVID-19 and serve as a prototype for future age-related infectious disease pandemics wherein the elderly population is especially vulnerable.