Immunosenescence and Cytomegalovirus: where do we stand after a decade?

AbstractSince Looney at al. published their seminal paper a decade ago it has become clear that many of the differences in T cell immunological parameters observed between young and old people are related to the age-associated increasing prevalence of infection with the persistent beta-herpesvirus HHV-5 (Cytomegalovirus). Ten years later, studies suggest that hallmark age-associated changes in peripheral blood T cell subset distribution may not occur at all in people who are not infected with this virus. Whether the observed changes are actually caused by CMV is an open question, but very similar, rapid changes observed in uninfected patients receiving CMV-infected kidney grafts are consistent with a causative role. This meeting intensively discussed these and other questions related to the impact of CMV on human immune status and its relevance for immune function in later life.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Report from the second cytomegalovirus and immunosenescence workshop.

The Second International Workshop on CMV & Immunosenescence was held in Cambridge, UK, 2-4th December, 2010. The presentations covered four separate sessions: cytomegalovirus and T cell phenotypes; T cell memory frequency, inflation and immunosenescence; cytomegalovirus in aging, mortality and disease states; and the immunobiology of cytomegalovirus-specific T cells and effects of the virus on vaccination. This commentary summarizes the major findings of these presentations and references subsequently published work from the presenter laboratory where appropriate and draws together major themes that were subsequently discussed along with new areas of interest that were highlighted by this discussion.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

The inverted CD4/CD8 ratio and associated parameters in 66-year-old individuals : the Swedish HEXA immune study

The Swedish OCTO and NONA immune longitudinal studies were able to identify and confirm an immune risk profile (IRP) predictive of an increased 2-year mortality in very old individuals, 86–94 years of age. The IRP, was associated with persistent cytomegalovirus infection and characterized by inverted CD4/CD8 ratio and related to expansion of terminally differentiated effector memory T cells (TEMRA phenotype). In the present HEXA immune longitudinal study, we have examined a younger group of elderly individuals (n = 424, 66 years of age) in a population-based sample in the community of Jönköping, Sweden, to examine the relevance of findings previously demonstrated in the very old. Immunological monitoring that was conducted included T cell subsets and CMV-IgG and CMV-IgM serology. The result showed a prevalence of 15 % of individuals with an inverted CD4/CD8 ratio, which was associated with seropositivity to cytomegalovirus and increases in the level of TEMRA cells. The proportion of individuals with an inverted CD4/CD8 ratio was significantly higher in men whereas the numbers of CD3+CD4+ cells were significantly higher in women. In conclusion, these findings are very similar to those previously found by us in the Swedish longitudinal studies, suggesting that an immune profile previously identified in the very old also exists in the present sample of hexagenerians. Therefore, it will be important to examine clinical parameters, including morbidity and mortality, to assess whether the immune profile also is a risk profile associated with higher mortality in this sample of hexagenerians.Funding Agencies|Medical Research Council of South-East Sweden||</p

Swedish HEXA immune study

parameters in 66-year-old individuals: th

Report from the second cytomegalovirus and immunosenescence workshop

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.International audienceThe Second International Workshop on CMV & Immunosenescence was held in Cambridge, UK, 2-4th December, 2010. The presentations covered four separate sessions: cytomegalovirus and T cell phenotypes; T cell memory frequency, inflation and immunosenescence; cytomegalovirus in aging, mortality and disease states; and the immunobiology of cytomegalovirus-specific T cells and effects of the virus on vaccination. This commentary summarizes the major findings of these presentations and references subsequently published work from the presenter laboratory where appropriate and draws together major themes that were subsequently discussed along with new areas of interest that were highlighted by this discussion