Articles

An evaluation of the recognised systemic inflammatory biomarkers of chronic sub-optimal inflammation provides evidence for inflammageing (IFA) during multiple sclerosis (MS)

The pathogenesis of the human demyelinating disorder multiple sclerosis (MS) involves the loss of immune tolerance to self-neuroantigens. A deterioration in immune tolerance is linked to inherent immune ageing...

Authors: Christopher Bolton

Analysis of the heterogeneity of the BCR H-CDR3 repertoire in the bone marrow and spleen of 3-, 12-, and 20-month old mice

The number of central and peripheral B cells and their responsiveness are decreased in aged mice. The diversity of mice central and peripheral B cell repertoires with increasing age has not been elucidated. In...

Authors: Lina Ma, Xinxin Tao, Xiaoyan He, Peng Wang, Long Ma, Bin Shi and Xinsheng Yao

Local immune responses to tuberculin skin challenge in Mycobacterium bovis BCG-vaccinated baboons: a pilot study of younger and older animals

Individuals over the age of 65 are highly susceptible to infectious diseases, which account for one-third of deaths in this age group. Vaccines are a primary tool to combat infection, yet they are less effecti...

Authors: Julia M. Scordo, Tucker J. Piergallini, Nicole Reuter, Colwyn A. Headley, Vida L. Hodara, Olga Gonzalez, Luis D. Giavedoni, James F. Papin and Joanne Turner

Hypothetical COVID-19 protection mechanism: hints from centenarians

The risk of serious complications and the fatality rate due to COVID-19 pandemic have proven particularly higher in older persons, putting a further strain in healthcare system as we dramatically observed.

Authors: Franca Rosa Guerini, Matteo Cesari and Beatrice Arosio

Human endogenous retroviruses and ageing

Authors: Mikko Hurme and Graham Pawelec

Improving seasonal influenza vaccination for older adults

Authors: Graham Pawelec and Janet McElhaney

Does reactivation of cytomegalovirus contribute to severe COVID-19 disease?

The majority of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 are asymptomatic or have mild to moderate symptoms. However, for unknown reasons, about 15 % have severe pneumonia requiring hospital care and oxygen support, an...

Authors: Cecilia Söderberg-Nauclér

Age-related differences in monocyte DNA methylation and immune function in healthy Kenyan adults and children

Age-related changes in adaptive and innate immune cells have been associated with a decline in effective immunity and chronic, low-grade inflammation. Epigenetic, transcriptional, and functional changes in mon...

Authors: Katherine R. Dobbs, Paula Embury, Emmily Koech, Sidney Ogolla, Stephen Munga, James W. Kazura and Arlene E. Dent

Aging in psoriasis vulgaris: female patients are epigenetically older than healthy controls

Psoriasis vulgaris is a skin autoimmune disease. Psoriatic patients have significantly lowered life expectancy and suffer from various comorbidities. The main goal of the study was to determine whether psoriat...

Authors: Pavel Borsky, Marcela Chmelarova, Zdenek Fiala, Kvetoslava Hamakova, Vladimir Palicka, Jan Krejsek, Ctirad Andrys, Jan Kremlacek, Vit Rehacek, Martin Beranek, Andrea Malkova, Tereza Svadlakova, Drahomira Holmannova and Lenka Borska

Hyper‐metabolic B cells in the spleens of old mice make antibodies with autoimmune specificities

Aging is associated with increased intrinsic B cell inflammation, decreased protective antibody responses and increased autoimmune antibody responses. The effects of aging on the metabolic phenotype of B cells...

Authors: Daniela Frasca, Maria Romero, Denisse Garcia, Alain Diaz and Bonnie B. Blomberg

T cells accumulate in non-diabetic islets during ageing

The resident immune population of pancreatic islets has roles in islet development, beta cell physiology, and the pathology of diabetes. These roles have largely been attributed to islet macrophages, comprisin...

Authors: Heather C. Denroche, Stéphanie Miard, Sandrine Sallé-Lefort, Frédéric Picard and C. Bruce Verchere

Unanticipated efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in older adults

The rapidity with which vaccines against COVID-19 have been developed and tested is unprecedented. As classically the case with randomized clinical trials, many studies excluded older adults. However, given th...

Authors: Graham Pawelec and Janet McElhaney

Reduced immune-regulatory molecule expression on human colonic memory CD4 T cells in older adults

The etiology of the low-level chronic inflammatory state associated with aging is likely multifactorial, but a number of animal and human studies have implicated a functional decline of the gastrointestinal im...

Authors: Stephanie M. Dillon, Tezha A. Thompson, Allison J. Christians, Martin D. McCarter and Cara C. Wilson

Aging and CMV discordance are associated with increased immune diversity between monozygotic twins

Broadly, much of variance in immune system phenotype has been linked to the influence of non-heritable factors rather than genetics. In particular, two non-heritable factors: aging and human cytolomegavirus (C...

Authors: Zheng Yan, Holden T. Maecker, Petter Brodin, Unni C. Nygaard, Shu Chen Lyu, Mark M. Davis, Kari C. Nadeau and Sandra Andorf

Macrophage function in the elderly and impact on injury repair and cancer

Older age is associated with deteriorating health, including escalating risk of diseases such as cancer, and a diminished ability to repair following injury. This rise in age-related diseases/co-morbidities is...

Authors: L Duong, HG Radley, B Lee, DE Dye, FJ Pixley, MD Grounds, DJ Nelson and C Jackaman

Sex- and age‐dependent alterations of splenic immune cell profile and NK cell phenotypes and function in C57BL/6J mice

Physiological homeostasis decline, immunosenescence, and increased risk for multiple diseases, including neurodegeneration, are all hallmarks of ageing. Importantly, it is known that the ageing process is sex-...

Authors: Kelly B. Menees, Rachael H. Earls, Jaegwon Chung, Janna Jernigan, Nikolay M. Filipov, Jessica M. Carpenter and Jae-Kyung Lee

Gut microbiota as the key controllers of “healthy” aging of elderly people

Extrinsic factors, such as lifestyle and diet, are shown to be essential in the control of human healthy aging, and thus, longevity. They do so by targeting at least in part the gut microbiome, a collection of...

Authors: Emeline Ragonnaud and Arya Biragyn

Obesity and COVID-19: what makes obese host so vulnerable?

The disease (COVID-19) novel coronavirus pandemic has so far infected millions resulting in the death of over a million people as of Oct 2020. More than 90% of those infected with COVID-19 show mild or no symp...

Authors: Sameer Mohammad, Rafia Aziz, Saeed Al Mahri, Shuja Shafi Malik, Esraa Haji, Altaf Husain Khan, Tanvir Saleem Khatlani and Abderrezak Bouchama

T cell phenotypes associated with insulin resistance: results from the Berlin Aging Study II

Obesity is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation leading to metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, but a subset of obese individuals is considered insulin sensitive (IS). The underlying pathophysiolog...

Authors: Julia Sbierski-Kind, David Goldeck, Nikolaus Buchmann, Joachim Spranger, Hans-Dieter Volk, Elisabeth Steinhagen-Thiessen, Graham Pawelec, Ilja Demuth and Dominik Spira

Correction to: Human MDSCs derived from the bone marrow maintain their functional ability but have a reduced frequency of induction in the elderly compared to pediatric donors

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Authors: Sara Magri, Elena Masetto, Samantha Solito, Samuela Francescato, Elisa Belluzzi, Assunta Pozzuoli, Antonio Berizzi, Pietro Ruggieri and Susanna Mandruzzato

Autoimmune hemolytic anemia: current knowledge and perspectives

Autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) is an acquired, heterogeneous group of diseases which includes warm AIHA, cold agglutinin disease (CAD), mixed AIHA, paroxysmal cold hemoglobinuria and atypical AIHA. Current...

Authors: Sylwia Sulimiera Michalak, Anna Olewicz-Gawlik, Joanna Rupa-Matysek, Edyta Wolny-Rokicka, Elżbieta Nowakowska and Lidia Gil

Aging induces B cell defects and decreased antibody responses to influenza infection and vaccination

Aging is characterized by a progressive decline in the capacity of the immune system to fight influenza virus infection and to respond to vaccination. Among the several factors involved, in addition to increas...

Authors: Daniela Frasca and Bonnie B. Blomberg

Pathogen burden and leukocyte telomere length in the United States

Prior studies in humans have suggested that telomere shortening may be accelerated by infection, but research on multiple pathogens and use of large population-based study samples has been limited. We estimate...

Authors: Grace A. Noppert, Lydia Feinstein, Jennifer B. Dowd, Rebecca C. Stebbins, Emma Zang, Belinda L. Needham, Helen C. S. Meier, Amanda Simanek and Allison E. Aiello

Plasma level of lipocalin 2 is increased in neovascular age-related macular degeneration patients, particularly those with macular fibrosis

Previously, we and others have reported higher populations of circulating neutrophils in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL, als...

Authors: Mei Chen, Nan Yang, Judith Lechner, Levente Toth, Ruth Hogg, Giuliana Silvestri, Usha Chakravarthy and Heping Xu

An anti-CD6 monoclonal antibody (itolizumab) reduces circulating IL-6 in severe COVID-19 elderly patients

Since the COVID-19 outbreak an unprecedented challenge for healthcare systems around the world has been placed. In Cuba, the first case of COVID-19 was reported on March 11. Elderly with multiple comorbidities...

Authors: Danay Saavedra, Ana Laura Añé-Kourí, Naivy Sánchez, Lázaro Manuel Filgueira, Julio Betancourt, Carlos Herrera, Leniel Manso, Elibet Chávez, Armando Caballero, Carlos Hidalgo, Geydi Lorenzo, Meylan Cepeda, Carmen Valenzuela, Mayra Ramos, Kalet León, Zaima Mazorra…

SARS-CoV-2 and mitochondrial health: implications of lifestyle and ageing

Infection with SARs-COV-2 displays increasing fatality with age and underlying co-morbidity, in particular, with markers of the metabolic syndrome and diabetes, which seems to be associated with a “cytokine st...

Authors: Alistair V. W. Nunn, Geoffrey W. Guy, Wolfgang Brysch, Stanley W. Botchway, Wayne Frasch, Edward J. Calabrese and Jimmy D. Bell

Effect of age and sex on immune checkpoint expression and kinetics in human T cells

Immune checkpoints are crucial molecules in maintaining a proper immune balance. Even though age and sex are known to have effects on the immune system, the interplay between age, sex and immune checkpoint exp...

Authors: Rosanne D. Reitsema, Rebeca Hid Cadena, Sander H. Nijhof, Wayel H. Abdulahad, Minke G. Huitema, Davy Paap, Elisabeth Brouwer, Annemieke M. H. Boots and Peter Heeringa

Emergence of T cell immunosenescence in diabetic chronic kidney disease

Type 2 diabetes is an important challenge given the worldwide epidemic and is the most important cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in developed countries. It is known that patients with ESRD and advanced...

Authors: Yen-Ling Chiu, Wan-Chuan Tsai, Ruo-Wei Hung, I-Yu Chen, Kai-Hsiang Shu, Szu-Yu Pan, Feng-Jung Yang, Te-Tien Ting, Ju-Ying Jiang, Yu-Sen Peng and Yi-Fang Chuang

The correlation between the Th17/Treg cell balance and bone health

With the ageing of the world population, osteoporosis has become a problem affecting quality of life. According to the traditional view, the causes of osteoporosis mainly include endocrine disorders, metabolic...

Authors: Lei Zhu, Fei Hua, Wenge Ding, Kai Ding, Yige Zhang and Chenyang Xu

Reproducibility of serum cytokines in an elderly population

It is important to assess the temporal reproducibility of circulating cytokines for their utility in epidemiological studies. However, existing evidence is limited and inconsistent, especially for the elderly ...

Authors: Jing Guo, Nicole Schupf, Richard P. Mayeux and Yian Gu

Age-associated changes in the circulating human antibody repertoire are upregulated in autoimmunity

The immune system undergoes a myriad of changes with age. While it is known that antibody-secreting plasma and long-lived memory B cells change with age, it remains unclear how the binding profile of the circu...

Authors: Aaron Arvey, Michael Rowe, Joseph Barten Legutki, Gang An, Anantha Gollapudi, Anna Lei, Bill Colston, Chaim Putterman, David Smith, Janelle Stiles, Theodore Tarasow and Preveen Ramamoorthy

Human MDSCs derived from the bone marrow maintain their functional ability but have a reduced frequency of induction in the elderly compared to pediatric donors

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are a heterogeneous population of immunosuppressive cells developing from myeloid progenitors, which are enriched in pathological conditions such as cancer, and are kno...

Authors: Sara Magri, Elena Masetto, Samantha Solito, Samuela Francescato, Elisa Belluzzi, Assunta Pozzuoli, Antonio Berizzi, Pietro Ruggieri and Susanna Mandruzzato

Genetic and environmental determinants of human TCR repertoire diversity

T cell discrimination of self and non-self is the foundation of the adaptive immune response, and is orchestrated by the interaction between T cell receptors (TCRs) and their cognate ligands presented by major...

Authors: Chirag Krishna, Diego Chowell, Mithat Gönen, Yuval Elhanati and Timothy A. Chan

Alterations of monocyte NF-κB p65/RelA signaling in a cohort of older medical patients, age-matched controls, and healthy young adults

Altered monocyte NF-κB signaling is a possible cause of inflammaging and driver of aging, however, evidence from human aging studies is sparse. We assessed monocyte NF-κB signaling across different aging traje...

Authors: Juliette Tavenier, Line Jee Hartmann Rasmussen, Morten Baltzer Houlind, Aino Leegaard Andersen, Inge Panum, Ove Andersen, Janne Petersen, Anne Langkilde and Jan O. Nehlin

ARID3a expression in human hematopoietic stem cells is associated with distinct gene patterns in aged individuals

Immunologic aging leads to immune dysfunction, significantly reducing the quality of life of the elderly. Aged-related defects in early hematopoiesis result in reduced lymphoid cell development, functionally d...

Authors: Michelle L. Ratliff, Joshua Garton, Judith A. James and Carol F. Webb

A public health perspective of aging: do hyper-inflammatory syndromes such as COVID-19, SARS, ARDS, cytokine storm syndrome, and post-ICU syndrome accelerate short- and long-term inflammaging?

A central clinical question as the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic is what the long-term sequelae for the millions of individuals will be who recover from the hyperinflammatory state characterizing COVI...

Authors: Arsun Bektas, Shepherd H. Schurman, Claudio Franceschi and Luigi Ferrucci

COVID-19: age, Interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, and lymphocytes as key clues from a multicentre retrospective study

The SARS-CoV-2 infection has widely spread to become the greatest public health challenge to date, the COVID-19 pandemic. Different fatality rates among countries are probably due to non-standardized records b...

Authors: Aurora Jurado, María C. Martín, Cristina Abad-Molina, Antonio Orduña, Alba Martínez, Esther Ocaña, Oscar Yarce, Ana M. Navas, Antonio Trujillo, Luis Fernández, Esther Vergara, Beatriz Rodríguez, Bibiana Quirant, Eva Martínez-Cáceres, Manuel Hernández, Janire Perurena-Prieto…

SARS-CoV-2 disease severity and diabetes: why the connection and what is to be done?

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel virus responsible for the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, has infected over 3.5 million people all over the world sin...

Authors: Caio Henrique Mazucanti and Josephine Mary Egan

In-depth immune cellular profiling reveals sex-specific associations with frailty

With advancing age, the composition of leukocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood is known to change, but how this change differs between men and women and how it relates to frailty is poorly understood. Our...

Authors: Leonard Daniël Samson, A. Mieke H. Boots, José A. Ferreira, H. Susan J. Picavet, Lia G. H. de Rond, Mary-lène de Zeeuw-Brouwer, W. M. Monique Verschuren, Anne-Marie Buisman and Peter Engelfriet

IL-15 deficiency alleviates steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head by impact osteoclasts via RANKL-RANK-OPG system

Whether IL-15 is involved in the development of steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is investigated.

Authors: Zubin Zhou, Yiwei Lin, Chenhao Pan, Nan Wang, Lihui Zhou, Haojie Shan, Youshui Gao and Xiaowei Yu

Classical and lectin complement pathways and markers of inflammation for investigation of susceptibility to infections among healthy older adults

There is increasing recognition of the significance of chronic, low-level inflammation in older adults, or “inflammaging.” Innate immune responses and host-bacterial interactions are recognized as key factors ...

Authors: David C. LaFon, Steffen Thiel, Young-il Kim, Mark T. Dransfield and Moon H. Nahm

Frontline treatments in extremely elderly patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: a population-based study in Taiwan, 2010–2015

The standard frontline therapy for patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is R-CHOP. However, patients older than 80 years are excluded from clinical trials. The importance of rituximab and anthra...

Authors: Huai-Hsuan Huang, Bor-Sheng Ko, Ho-Min Chen, Li-Ju Chen, Chen-Yu Wang and Fei-Yuan Hsiao

Role of immune cells in the removal of deleterious senescent cells

Cellular senescence is an essentially irreversible arrest of cell proliferation coupled to a complex senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). The senescence arrest prevents the development of cancer, ...

Authors: Abhijit Kale, Amit Sharma, Alexandra Stolzing, Pierre-Yves Desprez and Judith Campisi

The impact of body mass index on adaptive immune cells in the human bone marrow

Obesity has been associated with chronic inflammation and oxidative stress. Both conditions play a determinant role in the pathogenesis of age-related diseases, such as immunosenescence. Adipose tissue can mod...

Authors: Luca Pangrazzi, Erin Naismith, Carina Miggitsch, Jose’ Antonio Carmona Arana, Michael Keller, Beatrix Grubeck-Loebenstein and Birgit Weinberger

“The ancient and the new”: is there an interaction between cytomegalovirus and SARS-CoV-2 infection?

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic represents one of the greatest infectious challenges to humanity in recent history. One of the striking features of infection is the heterogeneous clinical response with worse outcomes ...

Authors: Paul Moss

The lethal sex gap: COVID-19

While Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is disrupting lives across the globe for everyone, it has a more devastating impact on the hea...

Authors: Eladio J. Márquez, Jennifer Trowbridge, George A. Kuchel, Jacques Banchereau and Duygu Ucar

Moderate- to high intensity aerobic and resistance exercise reduces peripheral blood regulatory cell populations in older adults with rheumatoid arthritis

Exercise can improve immune health and is beneficial for physical function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but the immunological mechanisms are largely unknown. We evaluated the effect of moderate-...

Authors: Sofia E. M. Andersson, Elvira Lange, Daniel Kucharski, Sara Svedlund, Karin Önnheim, Maria Bergquist, Elisabet Josefsson, Janet M. Lord, Inga-Lill Mårtensson, Kaisa Mannerkorpi and Inger Gjertsson

Effect of aging on the transcriptomic changes associated with the expression of the HERV-K (HML-2) provirus at 1q22

The human genome contains remnants of ancient retroviral infections called human endogenous retroviruses (HERV). Their expression is often observed in several diseases of autoimmune or inflammatory nature. How...

Authors: Arttu Autio, Tapio Nevalainen, Binisha H. Mishra, Marja Jylhä, Heini Flinck and Mikko Hurme

The immune response to influenza in older humans: beyond immune senescence

Despite widespread influenza vaccination programs, influenza remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in older adults. Age-related changes in multiple aspects of the adaptive immune response to influen...

Authors: Janet E. McElhaney, Chris P. Verschoor, Melissa K. Andrew, Laura Haynes, George A. Kuchel and Graham Pawelec

The SENIEUR protocol and the efficacy of hepatitis B vaccination in healthy elderly persons by age, gender, and vaccine route

Reduced response to hepatitis B vaccines is associated with aging, confounding and comorbid conditions, as well as inadvertent subcutaneous (SC) inoculation. We hypothesized that the antibody and T cell-mediat...

Authors: Robert Edelman, Meagan E. Deming, Franklin R. Toapanta, Mark D. Heuser, Lisa Chrisley, Robin S. Barnes, Steven S. Wasserman, William C. Blackwelder, Barry S. Handwerger, Marcela Pasetti, Khan M. Siddiqui and Marcelo B. Sztein