Fig. 1

Role of inflammaging in elderly and young individuals: Young individuals have a lower burden of disease, lower level of SASP and so on which put them to have a balanced proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory molecules before SARS-CoV-2 infection. Once young individuals are exposed to the virus, the body responses in a balanced way and are protected from cytokine storm and tissue damage (Panel A). On the other hand, due to high burden of disease, high level of AGE, presence of high level SASP, the elderly have a more proinflammatory cytokine production when exposed to SARS-CoV-2 causing hyperactive immune response which results in cytokine storm and tissue damage (Panel B)