Trial reportPLoS pathogens2012
The polyfunctionality of human memory CD8+ T cells elicited by acute and chronic virus infections is not influenced by age.
Trial report in PLoS pathogens, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 82 citations in OpenAlex.
- A tonsil organoid model reveals Epstein-Barr virus-infected germinal center B cell states during primary infection.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Review
- Immunosenescence and cytomegalovirus-associated immune signatures on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 booster responses.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2026Article
- Differentiation-induced reduction in functional diversity restricts the ability of cytomegalovirus-specific CD8 T cells to eliminate virus-infected cells.EBioMedicine · 2026Article
- Antigen specificity shapes distinct aging trajectories of memory CD8⁺ T cells.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Review
- Tapping the immunological imprints to design chimeric SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for elderly population.International reviews of immunology · 2022Review
- HCMV carriage in the elderly diminishes anti-viral functionality of the adaptive immune response resulting in virus replication at peripheral sites.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- Functional Consequences of Memory Inflation after Solid Organ Transplantation.Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · 2021Article
- Potential of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in the Rejuvenation of the Aging Immune System.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Immunity to acute virus infections with advanced age.Current opinion in virology · 2021Review
- Children From the Age of Three Show a Developmental Switch in T-Cell Differentiation.Frontiers in immunology · 2020Article
- Early T Cell Differentiation with Well-Maintained Function across the Adult Life Course in Sub-Saharan Africa.Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · 2019Article
- T-cell aging in end-stage renal disease: an evolving story with CMV.Medical microbiology and immunology · 2019Review
- Generation, maintenance and tissue distribution of T cell responses to human cytomegalovirus in lytic and latent infection.Medical microbiology and immunology · 2019Review
- The T-cell Response to Epstein-Barr Virus-New Tricks From an Old Dog.Frontiers in immunology · 2019Review
- CMV and EBV targets recognized by tumor-infiltrating B lymphocytes in pancreatic cancer and brain tumors.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- The impact of inflationary cytomegalovirus-specific memory T cells on anti-tumour immune responses in patients with cancer.Immunology · 2018Review
- Preserved immune functionality and high CMV-specific T-cell responses in HIV-infected individuals with poor CD4Scientific reports · 2017Article
- CMV immune evasion and manipulation of the immune system with aging.GeroScience · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
As humans age, they experience a progressive loss of thymic function and a corresponding shift in the makeup of the circulating CD8+ T cell population from naïve to memory phenotype. These alterations are believed to result in impaired CD8+ T cell responses in older individuals; however, evidence that these global changes impact virus-specific CD8+ T cell immunity in the elderly is lacking. To gain further insight into the functionality of virus-specific CD8+ T cells in older individuals, we interrogated a cohort of individuals who were acutely infected with West Nile virus (WNV) and chronically infected with Epstein Barr virus (EBV) and Cytomegalovirus (CMV). The cohort was stratified into young (<40 yrs), middle-aged (41-59 yrs) and aged (>60 yrs) groups. In the aged cohort, the CD8+ T cell compartment displayed a marked reduction in the frequency of naïve CD8+ T cells and increased frequencies of CD8+ T cells that expressed CD57 and lacked CD28, as previously described. However, we did not observe an influence of age on either the frequency of virus-specific CD8+ T cells within the circulating pool nor their functionality (based on the production of IFNγ, TNFα, IL2, Granzyme B, Perforin and mobilization of CD107a). We did note that CD8+ T cells specific for WNV, CMV or EBV displayed distinct functional profiles, but these differences were unrelated to age. Collectively, these data fail to support the hypothesis that immunosenescence leads to defective CD8+ T cell immunity and suggest that it should be possible to develop CD8+ T cell vaccines to protect aged individuals from infections with novel emerging viruses.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.