Molecular Mechanisms to Understand Aging and Immune Function and Nutraceutical Interventions

An increasingly long lifespan is responsible for significant developments in avoiding, halting or curing human pathologies. In order to ensure host survival in a world littered with foreign pathogens, the immune system is forced to go through a continuous adaptive phase during the host lifespan, continuously evolving and remodeling. A major challenge in current aging research is the recognition of the basis of the aging mechanisms underlying the various pathologies and loss of the function characteristic of older people. Decline in the efficiency of immune system exhibits a major part among the potential causes, and numerous studies have also identified immunological alterations which arise with age. Senescence of the immune system is a problem in coping with the growing prevalence of chronic diseases in an aging population. An appropriate and realistic approach tends to be diet- and nutrition-dependent strategies to countering the prevalence of the load of illness and preserving normal health in aged people. Today, due to their nutritional, protection and therapeutic consequences, nutraceuticals have attracted tremendous attention. Research in this field has attracted the attention of both researchers and academicians, and in recent years, the role of nutrition has become more important in this area. This chapter will concentrate on the processes and factors involved in immunosenescence and the effect of nutraceuticals on immunosenescence during the aging process.