Image: Dr Anna Hearps (left) with Professor Suzanne Crowe AM.
As the world prepares for an ageing population, Burnet’s new Healthy
Ageing Program is looking at ways the Institute’s research breadth
and expertise can improve physical, mental and social wellbeing
throughout life and sustain this into old age.
This story appeared in the Spring edition of IMPACT. Read the entire edition here online.
Aligned with Burnet’s
vision of ‘equity through better health’ the Program has a focus on
healthy ageing in vulnerable populations, particularly in neighbouring countries
to Australia and in the LGBTI community.
In Australia, 15 per cent of the population in 2016 were aged over 65.
In 2056 that percentage is expected to rise to 22 per cent, placing
an increased burden on health care services treating age-related
diseases such as chronic heart disease, type two diabetes and
hypertension, a situation also reflected globally.
Program Director of Healthy Ageing, Professor Suzanne Crowe AM
said it may surprise people that the precursors of these age-related
diseases were often established before birth.
“It’s the environment the growing baby is subjected to in the mother’s
womb in early infancy that can predispose that infant to metabolic
dysfunction – problems in the body that relate to bone, cholesterol,
coagulation (ability of the blood to clot) and mitochondria (organelles
that create energy for cells),” Professor Crowe said.
“These changes in the body result in age-related diseases in
later life.”

Low weight at birth and during infancy, followed by accelerated
weight gain from 3-11 years, have been shown to predict later risk
for certain non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
“It may surprise people to learn that the
precursors of age-related diseases were
often established before birth.”
– Professor Suzanne Crowe AM
Burnet’s Healthy Ageing projects include development of tools
to identify risk of NCDs, research into the cause of inflammation
that underpins development of NCDs, and the study of the role of
immune cells called monocytes in early cardiovascular disease.
Burnet researchers are aiming to discover ways to turn off the
harmful genes that contribute to the development of diseases
associated with old age. We are also assessing the needs of older
individuals living with HIV, particularly their preparedness to
transition from independent to dependent living.
Other projects
investigate the contribution of autoantibodies that attack the
body’s tissues to the ageing process, and the link between the
immune system and the development of frailty.
Deputy Program Director of Healthy Ageing, Dr Anna Hearps said
chronic viral infections such as HIV or hepatitis C often increased
inflammation and put pressure on the body’s immune system,
effectively causing it to age prematurely.
“For example a great number of people are infected with a
herpes-family virus called cytomegalovirus (CMV), without even
knowing it. In some people, up to a quarter of their immune
defences responsible for killing infected cells are constantly
diverted into suppressing this one virus, which over the long term
can lead to immunosenescence, or exhaustion of the immune
system,” Dr Hearps said.
Burnet researchers are also working to address age-related
problems for people living with HIV, who can be afflicted by frailty,
cardiovascular disease, cancers and dementia at an earlier age than
the general population.
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