Topic summary
Human CMV
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Human cytomegalovirus.
Pathogenesis
Human CMV causes cellular senescence, which could contribute to chronic inflammation (inflammaging). Human CMV is also linked to age-associated T cell dysfunction, contributing to immunosenescence. In persons infected with CMV about 10% of memory T cells are CMV-specific, but these may expand to as much as 30% in the elderly, 50% or more of CD8 memory T-cells. COVID-19 symptom severity is associated with CMV, although the exact mechanism has not been elucidated.