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Role of Immunosenescence in Coronary Artery Disease

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Handbook of Immunosenescence

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Abstract

This chapter describes how previous infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV) leads to a senescent phenotype of the adaptive immune system, mainly inflating the CD8 T-cell compartment, and how this is linked to vascular disease. CMV-seropositive octogenarians are 40% more likely to have coronary artery disease. In addition, a higher percentage of senescent-like CD4 and CD8 T cells predisposes them for cardiovascular death. Patients with previous myocardial infarction have shorter leukocyte telomere length than age-adjusted healthy controls. The telomere length difference (500 base pairs) is the same for all leukocyte subsets, except for a much larger gap (1 kbp) in the CD8 compartment. This is mainly driven by previous infection with CMV, indicating a special role of these cells in patients with coronary artery disease. In patients with acute myocardial infarction, senescent-like T cells decrease in the circulating blood during ischemia and reperfusion strongest, possibly mediated by the chemokine receptor CX3CR1 (receptor for fractalkine). CMV-specific cells also undergo programmed cell death via PD-1 following reperfusion. Finally, fractalkine is thought to mediate the cytotoxic effect of CMV-specific T cells on the endothelium. Together, we attempt to show how coronary artery disease could be linked with a senescent phenotype of the adaptive immune system.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

    Stephen Boag, Emanuele Andreano & Ioakim Spyridopoulos

  2. Institute of Ageing, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

    Carmen Martin-Ruiz

Authors
  1. Stephen Boag
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  2. Emanuele Andreano
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  3. Carmen Martin-Ruiz
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  4. Ioakim Spyridopoulos
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ioakim Spyridopoulos .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Geriatrics Research Center on Aging, University of Sherbrooke Dept. of Medicine, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada

    Tamas Fulop

  2. Dept of Experimental Pathology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Claudio Franceschi

  3. Institute for Health and Life Sciences, Tokyo, Japan

    Katsuiku Hirokawa

  4. Center for Medical Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Graham Pawelec

Section Editor information

  1. Research Center on Aging, Department of Medicine, Immunology Graduate Programme, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada

    Tamas Fulop

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Boag, S., Andreano, E., Martin-Ruiz, C., Spyridopoulos, I. (2018). Role of Immunosenescence in Coronary Artery Disease. In: Fulop, T., Franceschi, C., Hirokawa, K., Pawelec, G. (eds) Handbook of Immunosenescence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64597-1_129-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64597-1_129-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64597-1

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