Like all of the cells in our body, immune cells age. Over time, they become less and less able to fight infection, cancer, and disease. Previously, researchers thought the process of cells growing old and feeble, known as cellular senescence, was an inevitable consequence of routine infection and time. But a study published yesterday (September 15) in Nature Cell Biology suggests that an interaction between T cells and antigen presenting cells (APCs) early in the immune response to viruses may determine how fast T cells decline.
Telomeres are long, repeating sequences of DNA that bookend chromosomes and protect their ends from fraying. As cells age, their telomeres get shorter and shorter with each cell division until eventually, they can no longer divide. The new study finds that after infection, APCs, the cells that initially kickstart T cells’ immune response by presenting them with a foreign antigen, chop off and deliver ...
