The Leslie and Susan Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.
The Paul Feder Laboratory on Alzheimer's Disease Research, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.
Front Immunol. 2021 Jun 25;12:621440. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.621440. eCollection 2021.
The risk of severe outcomes following respiratory tract infections is significantly increased in individuals over 60 years, especially in those with chronic medical conditions, i.e., hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer. Down Syndrome (DS), the most prevalent intellectual disability, is caused by trisomy-21 in ~1:750 live births worldwide. Over the past few decades, a substantial body of evidence has accumulated, pointing at the occurrence of alterations, impairments, and subsequently dysfunction of the various components of the immune system in individuals with DS. This associates with increased vulnerability to respiratory tract infections in this population, such as the influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus, SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), and bacterial pneumonias. To emphasize this link, here we comprehensively review the immunobiology of DS and its contribution to higher susceptibility to severe illness and mortality from respiratory tract infections.
在 60 岁以上的人群中，呼吸道感染后出现严重后果的风险显著增加，特别是在那些患有慢性疾病的人群中，如高血压、糖尿病、心血管疾病、痴呆、慢性呼吸道疾病和癌症。唐氏综合征（DS）是最常见的智力障碍，其病因是全球约每 750 例活产中出现 21 号染色体三体。在过去的几十年中，大量证据表明，唐氏综合征患者的免疫系统的各种成分会发生改变、受损，随后出现功能障碍。这与该人群对呼吸道感染（如流感病毒、呼吸道合胞病毒、SARS-CoV-2（COVID-19）和细菌性肺炎）的易感性增加有关。为了强调这一联系，我们在这里全面回顾了 DS 的免疫生物学及其对呼吸道感染导致严重疾病和死亡的更高易感性的贡献。
