Limited effect of duration of CMV infection on adaptive immunity and frailty: insights from a 27-year-long longitudinal study.

ABSTRACT:

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 seroposi

SUBMITTER: Samson LD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7586993 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature