Low Grade Inflammation as a Common Pathogenetic Denominator in Age-RelatedDiseases: Novel Drug Targets for Anti-Ageing Strategies and Successful AgeingAchievement

Nowadays, people are living much longer than they used to do, however they are not free from ageing. Ageing, an inexorableintrinsic process that affects all cells, tissues, organs and individuals, is a post-maturational process that, due to a diminished homeostasisand increased organism frailty, causes a reduction of the response to environmental stimuli and, in general, is associated to an increasedpredisposition to illness and death. However, the high incidence of death due to infectious, cardiovascular and cancer diseases underlies acommon feature in these pathologies that is represented by dysregulation of both instructive and innate immunity. Several studies showthat a low-grade systemic inflammation characterizes ageing and that inflammatory markers are significant predictors of mortality in oldhumans. This pro-inflammatory status of the elderly underlies biological mechanisms responsible for physical function decline and agerelateddiseases such as Alzheimer's disease and atherosclerosis are initiated or worsened by systemic inflammation. Understanding of theageing process should have a prominent role in new strategies for extending the health old population. Accordingly, as extensivelydiscussed in the review and in the accompanying related papers, investigating ageing pathophysiology, particularly disentangling agerelatedlow grade inflammation, is likely to provide important clues about how to develop drugs that can slow or delay ageing.