[reasonattlm]

My company, Repair Biotechnologies, is working on regrowth of the atrophied thymus via FOXN1 upregulation. We're at the preclinical stage of getting the vector and formulation into shape, and the start of tests in influenza exposure models in mice.

The atrophy of the thymus is a major reason why the adaptive immune system declines. The evidence from sex steroid ablation in prostate cancer patients strongly suggests it is possible to provoke the naive T cell component of the adaptive immune system into regenerating itself in a matter of months, provided that the thymus is restored to more youthful activity. Also evidence from the Intervene Immune trial with growth hormone (not advisable as a strategy, but congratulations to that team on getting interesting data) for the same proposition.

To be clear this is a years long process for Repair Biotechnologies that would see us into trials around 2022, but at some point fixing the aged immune system will and must become a practical concern. At that point, we'll all be a lot less concerned about pandemics of this nature, as the mortality and hospitalization rates will be much reduced.

There are other things that need to handled to restore all of the aged immune system: getting hematopoietic stem cells back into line and functioning properly, regenerative medicine for lymph nodes, some form of targeted destruction for malfunctioning immune cells. But each of these items will give incremental benefits on its own.