Bat-Inspired Longevity: Immune Damage Management and Nutritional Modulation for Healthy Aging

The exceptional longevity of bats challenges classical theories of inflammaging and suggests an alternative that improved resilience in responding to pathogens and cellular damage can increase longevity. Accordingly, we have developed the Core Longevity State Vector (CLSV-6) to characterize an expanded explanation for inflammaging that can be predictive of successful aging and used to develop potential strategies for successful aging. Despite high metabolic rates and persistent viral exposure, many bat species have much longer lifespans than would be predicted for mammals of their size. The increased longevity of many bat species is achieved through damage tolerance, regulated inflammasome activity, constitutive basal antiviral defenses, enhanced autophagy–mitophagy, and efficient resolution of inflammation, rather than through heightened inflammatory immunity. The CLSV-6 is introduced as a multidimensional immunotype framework integrating six conserved mechanisms that link bat immunity to bat longevity and to human healthy aging: (1) damage tolerance, (2) autophagy–mitophagy, (3) proteostasis (management of degraded proteins), (4) basal immune readiness without activation, (5) inflammasome regulation, and (6) inflammatory resolution capacity. Together, these mechanisms enable a robust antiviral defense when needed without chronic inflammation. Notably, centenarians converge toward this bat-like configuration. Studies suggest that centenarians often preserve more functional NK cells, better macrophage regulation, and improved anti-inflammatory control, with both bats and humans exhibiting reduced activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, resulting in greater immune resilience. Building on this framework, functional foods—including polyphenols, fermented foods, and herbal extracts—are proposed as practical strategies to shift human immunity toward bat-like, CLSV-6 immunotype by enhancing cellular quality control, regulating inflammasome activity, strengthening basal antiviral readiness, and supporting inflammatory resolution, thereby redirecting longevity strategies from immune stimulation toward damage containment and repair. This review reframes longevity as an emergent property of integrated immune damage management and provides a mechanistic roadmap for nutritional interventions to engineer healthier human aging inspired by bat immunity.