Some people remain healthier throughout life than others but the underlying reasons are poorly understood. Here we hypothesize this advantage is attributable in part to optimal immune resilience (IR), defined as the capacity to preserve and/or rapidly restore immune functions that promote disease resistance (immunocompetence) and control inflammation in infectious diseases as well as other causes of inflammatory stress. We gauge IR levels with two distinct peripheral blood metrics that quantify the balance between (i) CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell levels and (ii) gene expression signatures tracking longevity-associated immunocompetence and mortality-associated inflammation. Profiles of IR metrics in ~48,500 individuals collectively indicate that some persons resist degradation of IR both during aging and when challenged with varied inflammatory stressors. With this resistance, preservation of optimal IR tracked (i) a lower risk of HIV acquisition, AIDS development, symptomatic influenza infection, and recurrent skin cancer; (ii) survival during COVID-19 and sepsis; and (iii) longevity. IR degradation is potentially reversible by decreasing inflammatory stress. Overall, we show that optimal IR is a trait observed across the age spectrum, more common in females, and aligned with a specific immunocompetence-inflammation balance linked to favorable immunity-dependent health outcomes. IR metrics and mechanisms have utility both as biomarkers for measuring immune health and for improving health outcomes.

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The causes of the complications of diabetes mellitus have been explored in ongoing studies in our laboratory using an In Vitro system. This system is used to screen compounds for their ability to inhibit the glycation of proteins by sugars. Vascular damage seen in diabetic patients is impacted by such protein sugar interaction. During this study it was found that lysine is an effective inhibitor of glycation. The inhibition of glycation was studied using a spectrophotometric assay for glycoproteins. Studies indicated lysine as most effective as an inhibitor of glycation at a concentration of 100 μg/ml. Lower levels of inhibition were observed when a concentration of 500 μg/ml was used. When the concentration was lowered to 50 μg/ml and 200 μg/ml the results showed the inhibition of glycation was roughly equal at each respective concentration. Further research is being performed to find the actual concentration at which the lysine inhibition no longer performs efficiently. Preliminary results indicated that further investigation is needed to determine the mechanism of inhibition and the possible use of lysine in the treatment of diabetic patients.This research project was funded by the Smith‐Glynn‐Callaway Medical Foundation.

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