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The impact of ageing on natural killer cell function and potential consequences for health in older adults

Forming the first line of defence against virally infected and malignant cells, natural killer (NK) cells are critical effector cells of the innate immune system. With age, significant impairments have been reported in the two main mechanisms by which NK cells confer host protection: direct cytotoxi...

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Autores principales: Hazeldine, Jon, Lord, Janet M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4147963/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23660515
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2013.04.003
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author Hazeldine, Jon
Lord, Janet M.
author_facet Hazeldine, Jon
Lord, Janet M.
author_sort Hazeldine, Jon
collection PubMed
description Forming the first line of defence against virally infected and malignant cells, natural killer (NK) cells are critical effector cells of the innate immune system. With age, significant impairments have been reported in the two main mechanisms by which NK cells confer host protection: direct cytotoxicity and the secretion of immunoregulatory cytokines and chemokines. In elderly subjects, decreased NK cell activity has been shown to be associated with an increased incidence and severity of viral infection, highlighting the clinical implications that age-associated changes in NK cell biology have on the health of older adults. However, is an increased susceptibility to viral infection the only consequence of these age-related changes in NK cell function? Recently, evidence has emerged that has shown that in addition to eliminating transformed cells, NK cells are involved in many other biological processes such as immune regulation, anti-microbial immune responses and the recognition and elimination of senescent cells, novel functions that involve NK-mediated cytotoxicity and/or cytokine production. Thus, the decrease in NK cell function that accompanies physiological ageing is likely to have wider implications for the health of older adults than originally thought. Here, we give a detailed description of the changes in NK cell biology that accompany human ageing and propose that certain features of the ageing process such as: (i) the increased reactivation rates of latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis, (ii) the slower resolution of inflammatory responses and (iii) the increased incidence of bacterial and fungal infection are attributable in part to an age-associated decline in NK cell function.
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spelling pubmed-41479632014-09-01 The impact of ageing on natural killer cell function and potential consequences for health in older adults Hazeldine, Jon Lord, Janet M. Ageing Res Rev Review Forming the first line of defence against virally infected and malignant cells, natural killer (NK) cells are critical effector cells of the innate immune system. With age, significant impairments have been reported in the two main mechanisms by which NK cells confer host protection: direct cytotoxicity and the secretion of immunoregulatory cytokines and chemokines. In elderly subjects, decreased NK cell activity has been shown to be associated with an increased incidence and severity of viral infection, highlighting the clinical implications that age-associated changes in NK cell biology have on the health of older adults. However, is an increased susceptibility to viral infection the only consequence of these age-related changes in NK cell function? Recently, evidence has emerged that has shown that in addition to eliminating transformed cells, NK cells are involved in many other biological processes such as immune regulation, anti-microbial immune responses and the recognition and elimination of senescent cells, novel functions that involve NK-mediated cytotoxicity and/or cytokine production. Thus, the decrease in NK cell function that accompanies physiological ageing is likely to have wider implications for the health of older adults than originally thought. Here, we give a detailed description of the changes in NK cell biology that accompany human ageing and propose that certain features of the ageing process such as: (i) the increased reactivation rates of latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis, (ii) the slower resolution of inflammatory responses and (iii) the increased incidence of bacterial and fungal infection are attributable in part to an age-associated decline in NK cell function. Elsevier Science 2013-09 /pmc/articles/PMC4147963/ /pubmed/23660515 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2013.04.003 Text en © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) .
spellingShingle Review
Hazeldine, Jon
Lord, Janet M.
The impact of ageing on natural killer cell function and potential consequences for health in older adults
title The impact of ageing on natural killer cell function and potential consequences for health in older adults
title_full The impact of ageing on natural killer cell function and potential consequences for health in older adults
title_fullStr The impact of ageing on natural killer cell function and potential consequences for health in older adults
title_full_unstemmed The impact of ageing on natural killer cell function and potential consequences for health in older adults
title_short The impact of ageing on natural killer cell function and potential consequences for health in older adults
title_sort impact of ageing on natural killer cell function and potential consequences for health in older adults
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4147963/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23660515
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2013.04.003
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