Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 12 pp 12032—12050
CD70 contributes to age-associated T cell defects and overwhelming inflammatory responses
- 1 Beijing Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Institute of Infectious Diseases, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100015, China
- 2 Clinical and Research Center of Infectious Diseases, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100015, China
- 3 Penn State Cancer Institute, Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, USA
Received: February 20, 2020 Accepted: May 1, 2020 Published: June 19, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103368How to Cite
Copyright © 2020 Wang et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Aging is associated with immune dysregulation, especially T cell disorders, which result in increased susceptibility to various diseases. Previous studies have shown that loss of co-stimulatory receptors or accumulation of co-inhibitory molecules play important roles in T cell aging. In the present study, CD70, which was generally regarded as a costimulatory molecule, was found to be upregulated on CD4+ and CD8+ T cells of elderly individuals. Aged CD70+ T cells displayed a phenotype of over-activation, and expressed enhanced levels of numerous inhibitory receptors including PD-1, 2B4 and LAG-3. CD70+ T cells from elderly individuals exhibited increased susceptibility to apoptosis and high levels of inflammatory cytokines. Importantly, the functional dysregulation of CD70+ T cells associated with aging was reversed by blocking CD70. Collectively, this study demonstrated CD70 as a prominent regulator involved in immunosenescence, which led to defects and overwhelming inflammatory responses of T cells during aging. These findings provide a strong rationale for targeting CD70 to prevent dysregulation related to immunosenescence.