Key result
CMV infection duration shows no link to CMV-specific antibody levels or memory T-cell pool size.
Why the study?
Cytomegalovirus infection is thought to affect the immune system and impact health during ageing, but whether antibody levels and memory T cells expand over duration of infection remains unclear.
Does the duration of CMV infection affect adaptive immunity, frailty, and cardiovascular disease prevalence in older adults?
Cohort (n=268)
Does the duration of CMV infection affect adaptive immunity, frailty, and cardiovascular disease prevalence in older adults?
Duration of CMV infection does not appear to drive continuous memory T-cell inflation, though elevated CMV antibodies are associated with higher cardiovascular disease prevalence.
Duration of CMV infection was not associated with T-cell inflation; leaves open whether seropositivity influences cardiovascular outcomes in older adults.
Objectives Cytomegalovirus infection is thought to affect the immune system and to impact general health during ageing. Higher CMV‐specific antibody levels in the elderly are generally assumed to reflect experienced viral reactivation during life. Furthermore, high levels of terminally differentiated and CMV‐specific T cells are hallmarks of CMV infection, which are thought to expand over time, a process also referred to as memory inflation. Methods We studied CMV‐specific antibody levels over ~ 27 years in 268 individuals (aged 60–89 years at study endpoint), and to link duration of CMV infection to T‐cell numbers, CMV‐specific T‐cell functions, frailty and cardiovascular disease at study endpoint. Results In our study, 136/268 individuals were long‐term CMV seropositive and 19 seroconverted during follow‐up (seroconversion rate: 0.56%/year). CMV‐specific antibody levels increased slightly over time. However, we did not find an association between duration of CMV infection and CMV‐specific antibody levels at study endpoint. No clear association between duration of CMV infection and the size and function of the memory T‐cell pool was observed. Elevated CMV‐specific antibody levels were associated with the prevalence of cardiovascular disease but not with frailty. Age at CMV seroconversion was positively associated with CMV‐specific antibody levels, memory CD4+T‐cell numbers and frailty. Conclusion Cytomegalovirus‐specific memory T cells develop shortly after CMV seroconversion but do not seem to further increase over time. Age‐related effects other than duration of CMV infection seem to contribute to CMV‐induced changes in the immune system. Although CMV‐specific immunity is not evidently linked to frailty, it tends to associate with higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease.
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Samson et al. (2020) conducted a cohort in Cytomegalovirus infection (n=268). Duration of CMV infection was evaluated on CMV-specific antibody levels, T-cell numbers, CMV-specific T-cell functions, frailty and cardiovascular disease. Over ~27 years, 19 of 268 individuals seroconverted (0.56%/year), but duration of CMV infection was not associated with CMV-specific antibody levels or memory T-cell pool size at study endpoint.
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