Due to herpes weaker immune system

Due to herpes weaker immune system in later age

17/08/2012

A particularly herpes virus is said to make the immune system age faster. This was the result of a study by the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig. The scientists around the immunologist Professor Luka Cicin-Sain found that older people have a weaker immune system if they have in recent years infected with the so-called cytomegalovirus (CMV). The study was published in the journal „PLoS Pathogens ".

Herpes virus is problematic for people with weaker immune systems
The CMV is not comparable to the classic herpes viruses, which cause, for example, small cold sores. Many people become infected with CMV without ever noticing disease symptoms. In others, it can lead to the onset of a so-called cytomegalovirus. Affected persons have fever, swollen lymph nodes as well as partial headache and body aches. The virus remains in the body for a lifetime, even if the actual condition is cured and no more discomfort occurs. The immune system must nevertheless constantly fend off the viruses.

For young people, this can be an advantage, since in this way other viruses are promptly averted. CMV is usually only problematic for adults with weakened immune systems, such as the elderly or the sick. They are more likely to suffer from infections of the eyes, liver, lungs and gastrointestinal tract.

As scientists write, the immune system ages faster through the constant defense reaction. It uses itself almost from. Therefore, it is weaker in old age than in people without CMV.

Allows mouse model with herpes virus to draw conclusions about humans?
For their study, the scientists studied the defenses of mice that were infected with CMV. Then they drew conclusions about the human immune system. „In summary, our results directly from a mouse model show that latent CMV infections weaken the immune system in old age and increase the aging of the immune system“, so the scientists.

„The results are in line with what has long been suspected, "explains Professor Carmen Scheibenbogen of the Institute of Medical Immunology at the Berlin Charité, but she considers it difficult to simply transfer the results of the mouse model to the human organism )

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