Recent work by Cousins Center faculty includes a broad range of work examining the immune system in older adults, with specific interests on mind/body interventions, sleep processes and vaccine development.

  * Tai Chi promotes healthy aging

Irwin MR, Olmstead R, Oxman MN.   
Augmenting immune responses to varicella zoster virus in older adults: a randomized, controlled trial of Tai Chi. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2007 Apr;55(4):511-7.

Motivala SJ, Sollers J, Thayer J, Irwin MR.       
Tai Chi Chih acutely decreases sympathetic nervous system activity in older adults. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2006 Nov;61(11):1177-80.

Irwin MR, Pike JL, Cole JC, Oxman MN.           
Effects of a behavioral intervention, Tai Chi Chih, on varicella-zoster virus specific immunity and health functioning in older adults. Psychosom Med. 2003 Sep-Oct;65(5):824-30.


* Late life depression and isolation are related to inflammation and poor health outcomes

Gruenewald TL, Karlamangla AS, Greendale GA, Singer BH, Seeman TE.   
Feelings of Usefulness to Others, Disability, and Mortality in Older Adults: the MacArthur Study of Successful Aging.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2007 Jan;62(1):P28-37.

Motivala SJ, Levin MJ, Oxman MN, Irwin MR.   
Impairments in health functioning and sleep quality in older adults with a history of depression. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2006 Aug;54(8):1184-91.

Loucks EB, Berkman LF, Gruenewald TL, Seeman TE.   
Relation of social integration to inflammatory marker concentrations in men and women 70 to 79 years.
Am J Cardiol. 2006 Apr 1;97(7):1010-6. Epub 2006 Feb 20.

Lavretsky H, Nguyen LH.     
Innovations: geriatric psychiatry: diagnosis and treatment of neuropsychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer's disease. Psychiatr Serv. 2006 May;57(5):617-9.

*  The impact of aging on the immune system – senescence and vaccines

Effros RB.             
Telomerase induction in T cells: a cure for aging and disease? Exp Gerontol. 2007 May;42(5):416-20. Epub 2006 Dec 19.

Effros RB.             
Role of T lymphocyte replicative senescence in vaccine efficacy. Vaccine. 2007 Jan 8;25(4):599-604. Epub 2006 Sep 7. Review.

Effros RB, Dagarag M, Spaulding C, Man J.     
The role of CD8+ T-cell replicative senescence in human aging. Immunol Rev. 2005 Jun;205:147-57. Review.


Effros RB.             
Roy Walford and the immunologic theory of aging. Immun Ageing. 2005 Apr 25;2(1):7.