%0 Journal Article %A Derhovanessian, Evelyna %A Maier, Andrea B. %A Hähnel, Karin %A Beck, Robert %A de Craen, Anton J. M. %A Slagboom, Eline P. %A Westendorp, Rudi G. J. %A Pawelec, Graham %T Infection with cytomegalovirus but not herpes simplex virus induces the accumulation of late-differentiated CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells in humans %D 2011 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 92 %N 12 %P 2746-2756 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.036004-0 %I Microbiology Society, %X Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) establishes persistent, usually asymptomatic, infection in healthy people. Because CMV infection is associated with the presence of lower proportions of peripheral naïve CD8+ T-cells and a higher fraction of late-differentiated CD8+ cells, commonly taken as biomarkers of age-associated compromised adaptive immunity (‘immunosenescence’), we asked whether chronic exposure to any persistent virus mediates these effects. Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is also a widespread herpesvirus that establishes lifelong persistence, but, unlike CMV, its impact on the distribution of T-cell subsets has not been established. Here, we analysed T-cell subsets in 93 healthy people aged 42–81 years infected or not infected with CMV and/or HSV. Individuals harbouring CMV were confirmed to possess lower frequencies of naïve CD8+ T-cells (defined as CD45RA+CCR7+CD27+CD28+) and greater proportions of late-differentiated effector memory (CD45RA−CCR7−CD27−CD28−) and so-called TEMRA (CD45RA+CCR7−CD27−CD28−) CD4 and CD8 subsets, independent of HSV seropositivity. In CMV-seronegative donors, HSV did not affect T-cell subset distribution significantly. We conclude that these hallmarks of age-associated alterations to immune signatures are indeed observed in the general population in people infected with CMV and not those infected with a different persistent herpesvirus. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.036004-0