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

Shelia Govind; Pierre Olivier Lang; Alexander Bürkle; María Moreno-Villanueva; Claudio Franceschi; Miriam Capri; Jurgen Bernard; Birgit Weinberger; Beatrix Grubeck-Loebenstein; Simone Fiegl; Efstathios S. Gonos; Ewa Sikora; Eugène Jansen; Martijn E. T. Dollé; Tilman Grune; Nicolle Breusing; Richard Aspinall

doi:10.1186/s12979-024-00490-9

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

Shelia Govind
, Pierre Olivier Lang
, Alexander Bürkle
, María Moreno-Villanueva
, Claudio Franceschi
, Miriam Capri
, Jurgen Bernard
, Birgit Weinberger
, Beatrix Grubeck-Loebenstein
, Simone Fiegl
, Efstathios S. Gonos
, Ewa Sikora
, Eugène Jansen
, Martijn E. T. Dollé
, Tilman Grune
, Nicolle Breusing
, Richard Aspinall

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
Genolier Clinic
University of Konstanz
Lobachevsky State University
Universita di Bologna
BioTeSys GmbH
University of Innsbruck
University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology
National Hellenic Research Foundation
Polish Academy of Sciences
National Institute for Public Health and the Environment
German Institute of Human Nutrition
University of Hohenheim

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

37 Downloads (Pure)

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.

Original language	English
Article number	84
Number of pages	12
Journal	Immunity and Ageing
Volume	21
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s12979-024-00490-9
Publication status	Published - 29 Nov 2024

Bibliographical note

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material.

Funding

The authors would like to thank the subjects who participated in the MARK-AGE study. All information was accessed in accordance with the applicable laws and ethical requirements for the study period concerned and was compliant with the Declaration of Helsinki. The Local Research Ethics Committees of the respective recruitment centres provided ethical approval for the MARK-AGE project, and this project was registered with the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS00007713). This work was funded by the European Commission (Project Full Name: European study to Establish Biomarkers of Human Ageing; Project Acronym: MARK-AGE; Project No 200880).

Funders	Funder number
European Commission	200880

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

Human Herpes Virus
T cell receptor excision circles

Access to Document

10.1186/s12979-024-00490-9Licence: CC BY

Aspinall2024VORFinal published version, 1.99 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

Govind, S., Lang, P. O., Bürkle, A., Moreno-Villanueva, M., Franceschi, C., Capri, M., Bernard, J., Weinberger, B., Grubeck-Loebenstein, B., Fiegl, S., Gonos, E. S., Sikora, E., Jansen, E., Dollé, M. E. T., Grune, T., Breusing, N., & Aspinall, R. (2024). 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. Immunity and Ageing, 21, Article 84. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12979-024-00490-9

Govind, S, Lang, PO, Bürkle, A, Moreno-Villanueva, M, Franceschi, C, Capri, M, Bernard, J, Weinberger, B, Grubeck-Loebenstein, B, Fiegl, S, Gonos, ES, Sikora, E, Jansen, E, Dollé, MET, Grune, T, Breusing, N & Aspinall, R 2024, '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', Immunity and Ageing, vol. 21, 84. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12979-024-00490-9

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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.",

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AU - Weinberger, Birgit

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AU - Fiegl, Simone

AU - Gonos, Efstathios S.

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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

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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