Detection of HHV-5 HHV-6a HHV-6b and HHV-7 in the urine: potential use as a non-invasive diagnostic tool for immune profiling

Decline in immune function with age has been studied extensively, but approaches to immune restoration have been hampered by the lack of simple methods of identifying individuals whose immune system is in decline. Our approach has been to identify individuals whose immune decline has led to a loss of control of common latent viral infections and their consequent reactivation. Viruses excreted in urine were detected and quantified and we believe this approach could provide a 'surrogate marker' for identifying immune compromised individuals. Here we report the detection of human herpes virus (HHV) 5, 6a, 6b and 7 in the urine of healthy individuals over a wide age range and their correlation with T cell receptor excision circle (TREC) data. The results did not show a clear correlation between TREC values and the detection of individual specific viruses or viral load values when measured singly. However, a correlation was found between low TREC values and the detection of several different human herpes viruses in the urine in males. We present evidence suggesting that for males, the detection of three or more different human herpes viruses in the urine could identify individuals with declining immune function as evidenced by their significantly lower TREC levels.

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Publication Details

Journal
Immunity & Ageing
Published
2024-11-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12979-024-00490-9
Primary Topic
Cytomegalovirus and herpesvirus research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Detection of HHV-5 HHV-6a HHV-6b and HHV-7 in the urine: potential use as a non-invasive diagnostic tool for immune profiling

Nicolle Breusing, Efstathios S. Gonos, Alexander Bürkle, Martijn E.T. Dollé et al.
Immunity & Ageing
Cytomegalovirus and herpesvirus research
article

Detection of HHV-5 HHV-6a HHV-6b and HHV-7 in the urine: potential use as a non-invasive diagnostic tool for immune profiling

Nicolle Breusing, Efstathios S. Gonos, Alexander Bürkle, Martijn E.T. Dollé, B. Grubeck‐Loebenstein, Richard Aspinall, J P Bernard, Birgit Weinberger, María Moreno Villanueva, Ewa Sikora, Miriam Capri, Pierre Olivier Lang, Simone Fiegl, Claudio Franceschi, Sheila Govind, Tilman Grune, Eugène Jansen
article en

Abstract

Decline in immune function with age has been studied extensively, but approaches to immune restoration have been hampered by the lack of simple methods of identifying individuals whose immune system is in decline. Our approach has been to identify individuals whose immune decline has led to a loss of control of common latent viral infections and their consequent reactivation. Viruses excreted in urine were detected and quantified and we believe this approach could provide a 'surrogate marker' for identifying immune compromised individuals. Here we report the detection of human herpes virus (HHV) 5, 6a, 6b and 7 in the urine of healthy individuals over a wide age range and their correlation with T cell receptor excision circle (TREC) data. The results did not show a clear correlation between TREC values and the detection of individual specific viruses or viral load values when measured singly. However, a correlation was found between low TREC values and the detection of several different human herpes viruses in the urine in males. We present evidence suggesting that for males, the detection of three or more different human herpes viruses in the urine could identify individuals with declining immune function as evidenced by their significantly lower TREC levels.

Immunity & AgeingVol. 21(1)
University of Hohenheim (DE), University of Konstanz (DE), Universität Innsbruck (AT), National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (NL), Clinique de Genolier (CH), BioTeSys (Germany) (DE), UMIT - Private Universität für Gesundheitswissenschaften, Medizinische Informatik und Technik (AT), Intelligent Health (United Kingdom) (GB), German Institute of Human Nutrition (DE), Coventry University (GB), N. I. Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod (RU), University of Bologna (IT), Polish Academy of Sciences (PL)
European Commission
Good health and well-being
Openalex Percentile: Top 67%
Cytomegalovirus and herpesvirus research
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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