Inflammation is a major cause of some types of accumulated cellular and biomolecular damage, which is why sources of inflammation are linked to age-related conditions - acquire damage faster and your systems wear out faster. From EurekAlert: "We have done what many others have been trying to do for years. We have made a therapeutic antibody against one of the most potent inflammatory agents in the body and used it to cure arthritis in mice. The next step is to translate the highly effective outcome we see in mice to human patients. If we can do this, we will have a revolutionary new treatment for a number of important human diseases ... We anticipate that our antibody will be a significant improvement over current therapies because it acts at a different and earlier point in the inflammatory process compared with current anti-inflammatory therapies."

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-02/ra-ssd020706.php