Clinical and epidemiological correlates of antibody response to human papillomaviruses (HPVs) as measured by a novel ELISA based on denatured recombinant HPV16 late (L) and early (E) antigens

Please investigate cytomegalovirus

Carol Thompson   (2009-02-15 12:34)  not applicable

Please investigate cytomegalovirus before concluding that smoking is the cause. For socioeconomic reasons, smokers are more likely to have been infected by this virus, which is known to have powerful immunosuppressive effects.

Association between cytomegalovirus infection, enhanced proinflammatory response and low level of anti-hemagglutinins during the anti-influenza vaccination--an impact of immunosenescence. P Trzonkowski, J Myśliwska, E Szmit, J Wieckiewicz, K Lukaszuk, LB Brydak, M Machała, A Myśliwski. Vaccine 2003 Sep 8;21(25-26):3826-3836. "Non-responders of both ages we characterised by higher levels of anti-CMV IgG and higher percentages of CD57+CD28- lymphocytes (known to be associated with CMV carrier status) together with increased concentrations of TNFalpha and IL6 and decreased levels of cortisol."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12922116

Herpesvirus-specific CD8 T cell immunity in old age: cytomegalovirus impairs the response to a coresident EBV infection. N Khan, A Hislop, N Gudgeon, M Cobbold, R Khanna, L Nayak, AB Rickinson, PA Moss. J Immunol 2004 Dec 15;173(12):7481-7489. "CMV appears to be the most immunogenic, with the CD8 T cell response representing over 10% of the CD8 pool in many elderly donors. Interestingly, the effect of age upon EBV-specific responses depends upon donor CMV sero-status. In CMV seropositive donors, the magnitude of the EBV-specific immune response is stable with age, but in CMV seronegative donors, the response to EBV increases significantly with age. By contrast, the influenza-specific CD8 T cell immune response decreases with age, independent of CMV status."

http://www.jimmunol.org/cgi/content/full/173/12/7481

Competing interests

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