Grant: Operating Grant: Geroscience Demonstration Grants

Some viruses give us a nasty cold then go away but other viruses stay with us our whole life. Some of these viruses can make us sick, for example HIV or hepatitis C, but others come back intermittently and are very annoying, for example herpes simplex virus (HSV) which recurrently give us cold sores or genital wards. Several of these chronic or persistent viruses (Epstein-Barr virus responsible for "mono" or cytomegalovirus) are quite common in the population. Whether they lead to sickness or not, they keep our immune system busy fighting the virus each time they come back. As we age, we are less and less able to fight against infections, such as the influenza virus, that we could easily beat when younger. A weaker immune system also increase the risk of several cancers linked to these viruses. We hypothesize that these persistent viruses damage our immune system over time, change the type of immune cells we have, and reduce our immune cells' ability to activate in order to fight new infections. Furthermore, we contend that the recurrent on and off activation of the immune system because of these viruses leads to the accumulation of mutations within immune cells, eventually rendering them less functional. We propose to study a group of people of all ages (1-80 years old), half of them living with HIV, the other half not. We will test for 8 chronic/persistent viruses and determine how many each person carries, how these relate to the health of their immune cells, and to their risk of disease. Understanding the effect of these viruses on immune cells and ultimately cellular aging will inform on the potential benefits of treating or vaccinating against these viruses in the future.