Connie Jackaman

A serious complication in the elderly following a fall-related injury and hospitalisation is the acute onset of delirium, which can also lead to dementia. This occurs when the body's defences, including the immune system, are in decline. It is now accepted that the immune system plays a key role in injury repair. However, few studies have examined the combined effects of declining immune function on injury repair and whether this impacts brain function. Therefore, in this project we examined changes in the brain of young versus elderly hosts following acute injury.

 We found a defect in key immune cells, known as macrophages, leads to inflammation and harmful changes in the brain following acute injury in the elderly. Interestingly, blocking macrophages prevented these harmful changes in the brain of elderly hosts following acute injury. Similarly, early intervention with a repurposed anti-ageing therapy reduced in inflammatory changes in the brain. Overall, our data may help to explain the decline in cognitive function observed in the elderly following acute injury and highlights potential therapeutic targets.

At the time of award, Dr Jackaman was a Research Fellow based at the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, Western Australia.