Let T Be | Letting up senescence and inflammaging through T cells

Summary
With the increase in human life expectancy, there is an urgent need to understand the common molecular pathways by which aging results in a progressively higher susceptibility to chronic morbidity, disability, and frailty. In the last years, immunometabolism has emerged as a new field to boost immune responses for cancer immunotherapies as well as to dampen autoimmune diseases. A recent discovery from my lab has revealed the critical role of T cell metabolism in accelerating the onset of age-associated diseases and multimorbidity. This finding has opened a new path to investigate the diverse T cell intrinsic and external stimuli that instruct T cell differentiation towards a dysfunctional state during aging, with the final goal of designing effective strategies to promote healthy aging. LetTBe will address the hypothesis that the time-dependent deterioration of T lymphocytes contributes not only to immunosenescence but also to the general aging process. The LetTBe project proposes to use multidisciplinary approaches to target age-associated T cells for preventing inflammaging, senescence and age-associated multimorbidity. Our central goals are: 1) To define age-associated T cells heterogeneity with special focus in their cellular origin, clonality, metabolic vulnerabilities and transcriptomic signatures; 2) To decode the environmental signals that are imprinted on age-associated T cells and contribute to their development; 3) To identify new strategies to targeting age-associated T cells for slowing down immunosenescence, and for boosting resilience to inflammaging, systemic senescence and age-related multimorbidity. In sum, LetTBe puts forward an ambitious but feasible program with the wide purpose of understanding the specific molecular mechanisms and metabolic requirements of age-associated T cells, with the final goal to guide new strategies to improve healthy aging.
Unfold all
/
Fold all
More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101044248
Start date: 01-03-2023
End date: 29-02-2028
Total budget - Public funding: 1 999 944,00 Euro - 1 999 944,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

With the increase in human life expectancy, there is an urgent need to understand the common molecular pathways by which aging results in a progressively higher susceptibility to chronic morbidity, disability, and frailty. In the last years, immunometabolism has emerged as a new field to boost immune responses for cancer immunotherapies as well as to dampen autoimmune diseases. A recent discovery from my lab has revealed the critical role of T cell metabolism in accelerating the onset of age-associated diseases and multimorbidity. This finding has opened a new path to investigate the diverse T cell intrinsic and external stimuli that instruct T cell differentiation towards a dysfunctional state during aging, with the final goal of designing effective strategies to promote healthy aging. LetTBe will address the hypothesis that the time-dependent deterioration of T lymphocytes contributes not only to immunosenescence but also to the general aging process. The LetTBe project proposes to use multidisciplinary approaches to target age-associated T cells for preventing inflammaging, senescence and age-associated multimorbidity. Our central goals are: 1) To define age-associated T cells heterogeneity with special focus in their cellular origin, clonality, metabolic vulnerabilities and transcriptomic signatures; 2) To decode the environmental signals that are imprinted on age-associated T cells and contribute to their development; 3) To identify new strategies to targeting age-associated T cells for slowing down immunosenescence, and for boosting resilience to inflammaging, systemic senescence and age-related multimorbidity. In sum, LetTBe puts forward an ambitious but feasible program with the wide purpose of understanding the specific molecular mechanisms and metabolic requirements of age-associated T cells, with the final goal to guide new strategies to improve healthy aging.

Status

SIGNED

Call topic

ERC-2021-COG

Update Date

09-02-2023
Images
No images available.
Geographical location(s)
Structured mapping
Unfold all
/
Fold all
Horizon Europe
HORIZON.1 Excellent Science
HORIZON.1.1 European Research Council (ERC)
HORIZON.1.1.0 Cross-cutting call topics
ERC-2021-COG ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS
HORIZON.1.1.1 Frontier science
ERC-2021-COG ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS