Date: April 21, 2022

Source: School of Medicine

A joint research team led by Prof. Luo Junhong and Prof. Chen Guobing of JNU's School of Medicine and Prof. Liu Feng of Guangzhou First People's Hospital published a cover paper in the journal Nature Aging on April 18. The paper is titled Multidimensional Single-Cell Analysis of Human Peripheral Blood Reveals Characteristic Features of the Immune System Landscape in Aging and Frailty. On the single-cell level, the research profiles changes in human peripheral blood immune cells from newborns to fragile elderly adults by comparing their whole-transcriptome profiles and using TCR sequencing. It also reveals that exclusively high expression of long noncoding RNA NEAT1 may be a potentially important driver of immune systems in the aged.

The paper was published with commentary by Prof. Roel P. H. De Maeyer and Arne N. Akbar of University College London. The review says the research provides a valuable database for geriatrics, especially on frailty, and opens the door to new research by defining the immunological characteristics of frailty among the elderly.

The research is funded by National Key Research and Development Program Proactive Health and Technological Response to Aging of the Ministry of Science and Technology’s major project “Diagnostic Criteria and Comprehensive Intervention Study of Frailty of the Elderly in China.” The first authors are Luo, Dr. Lei Wen and Dr. Ren Zhiyao from JNU. Chen and Luo are the corresponding authors, and JNU is the first author affiliation.