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closeAUTHOR SUMMARY
Posted by laperita on 19 Feb 2014 at 15:15 GMT
Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) latent infection has a high prevalence
worldwide and is related to geographical, ethnic and socio-economic factors.
CMV seropositivity increases with age. It has been associated with an
increased risk of death and with changes in the immune system predictive of
early mortality in elderly donors. However in this work we show that CMVseropositive
young individuals are better responders than CMV-seronegative
donors to the bacterial super-antigen SEB, in terms of polyfunctionality of their
cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CD8+). CMV-seropositivity improves the functional
capacity of CD8+ T cells in young donors by inducing the expansion of a
subpopulation of polyfunctional CD8+ T cells characterized by the expression of
the CD57 marker. Therefore, whereas CMV latent infection can be detrimental
in old ages, in young individuals it can provide an immunological advantage in
the response to other pathogens. These findings help to explain the high
prevalence of this virus in humans and highlight the necessity of further studies
on the benefits and the detrimental effects of CMV infection in the response to
vaccination and other infections in particular in developing countries where the
prevalence of CMV seropositivity in infants is very high.