I've become convinced that TNF is a critical piece of the puzzle for understanding Human Longevity, Morbidity, and Mortality.
I began more seriously considering the role of Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) in Longevity, Morbidity, and Mortality as a result of participating in the Buckyballs in Olive Oil double lifespan of Wistar Rats thread. I had earlier become familiar with TNF as a result of a long time spent doing research on the 5-Lipoxygenase (aka, 5-LO or 5-LOX) Inflammatory Pathway, but I hadn’t looked at it specifically with Longevity in mind.
I hadn’t realized how much evidence, explicit and implicit (through multiple study comparison), exists about the importance of TNF. I’ll bet you haven’t either. If more people knew about this evidence, someone would have established a Longecity thread about it long ago. But they haven't and, in fact, they couldn't, because the evidence has only recently become clear enough to see...
The objective here, then, is to establish a Forum Thread to post about, discuss, and debate research related to Tumor Necrosis Factor. Let me be clear. I’m just learning about it myself, but I've learned enough to want to become an expert about it. Maybe you will too.
I’m kicking this thread off by providing multiple layers of evidence showing how critical TNF is to Longevity, Morbidity, and Mortality, including, relatively soon, at least...
- gene related evidence
- Extreme Longevity study evidence
- evidence related to the 5-LO Inflammatory Cascade literature
- Cholinergic Anti-Inflammatory Pathway evidence
- insulin resistance study evidence
- tumor study evidence
- and others TBD
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TNF Background Information
Wikipedia Links
http://en.wikipedia....necrosis_factor (notice a change of name)
http://en.wikipedia....is_factor-alpha
The Paradoxical Role of TNF for Health
A fundamental point about TNF is that it plays a positive role in health through its activation by the Immune System. But it is an Inflammatory Cytokine also so that, once its role in attacking invaders has been accomplished, it becomes a negative factor in health because it attacks tissue. TNF activation is among the most important elements driving the diseases that kill most of us off these days, what are now called Auto-Immune Diseases.
Here’s a study abstract about this paradoxical role...
Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is a cytokine with well known anticancer properties and is being utilized as anticancer agent for the treatment of patients with locally advanced solid tumors. However, TNF role in cancer biology is debated. In fact, in spite of the wealth of evidence supporting its antitumor activity, the cascade of molecular events underlying TNF-mediated tumor regression observed in vivo is still incompletely elucidated. Furthermore, some preclinical findings suggest that TNF may even promote cancer development and progression. With this work we intend to summarize the molecular biology of TNF (with particular regard to its tumor-related activities) and review the experimental and clinical evidence currently available describing the complex and sometime apparently conflicting relationship between this cytokine, cancer biology and antitumor therapy. We also propose a model to explain the dual effect of TNF based on the exposure time and cytokine levels reached within the tumor microenvironment. Finally, we overview recent research findings that might lead to new ways for exploiting the anticancer potential of TNF in the clinical setting.