id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentences	flesch	summary	cache	txt
cord-264013-8jnae6ig	Tsilingiris, Dimitrios	Telomere length, epidemiology, and pathogenesis of severe COVID‐19	2020-08-09		.txt	text/plain	1905	115	46	Cohen et al reported that in a relatively selected population of healthy adults aged between 18 and 55 years, following experimental exposure to Rhinovirus 39 (a single-stranded RNA virus), a shorter telomer length in PBMCs, total lymphocytes, as well as CD4+ and CD8+ Tlymphocyte subsets was associated with an increased probability of upper respiratory infection 23 . A diminishing telomere length in human lymphocytes is related to the process of their replicative senescence (or biological "aging") 26 . 29 Conversely, CD8+ lymphocyte senescence associated with critical telomere shortening induces a state of "hyper-function" with evasion of apoptosis, increased secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha and interleukin-6 and loss of surface CD28, a co-stimulatory receptor necessary for the mobilization of targeted T-cell immune responses. We further speculate that this observation is driven by a complex immune dysregulation tracing back to immune cell senescence associated with telomere shortening, leading to increased susceptibility to infection and clinical disease (particularly pneumonia) by SARS-CoV-2, as well as unfavorable disease progression potentially marked by cytokine storm syndrome.	./cache/cord-264013-8jnae6ig.txt	./txt/cord-264013-8jnae6ig.txt