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Telomere Shortening and Its Association with Cell Dysfunction in Lung Diseases.

ABSTRACT: Telomeres are localized at the end of chromosomes to provide genome stability; however, the telomere length tends to be shortened with each cell division inducing a progressive telomere shortening (TS). In addition to age, other factors, such as exposure to pollutants, diet, stress, and disruptions in the shelterin protein complex or genes associated with telomerase induce TS. This phenomenon favors cellular senescence and genotoxic stress, which increases the risk of the development and progression of lung diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, SARS-CoV-2 infection, and lung cancer. In an infectious environment, immune cells that exhibit TS are associated with severe lymphopenia and death, whereas in a noninfectious context, naïve T cells that exhibit TS are related to cancer progression and enhanced inflammatory processes. In this review, we discuss how TS modifies the function of the immune system cells, making them inefficient in maintaining homeostasis in the lung. Finally, we discuss the advances in drug and gene therapy for lung diseases where TS could be used as a target for future treatments.

SUBMITTER: Ruiz A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8745057 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Telomere shortening has been associated with several lung diseases. However, telomere length is generally measured in peripheral blood leucocytes rather than in lung tissue, where disease occurs. Consequently, telomere dynamics have not been established for the normal human lung nor for diseased lung tissue. We hypothesized an age- and disease-dependent shortening of lung tissue telomeres. METHODS:At time of (re-)transplantation or autopsy, 70 explant lungs were collected: from unused donors (normal, n = 13) and patients with cystic fibrosis (CF, n = 12), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, n = 11), chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis (cHP, n = 9), bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) after prior transplantation (n = 11) and restrictive allograft syndrome (RAS) after prior transplantation (n = 14). Lungs were inflated, frozen and then scanned using CT. Four tissue cores from distinct lung regions were sampled for analysis. Disease severity was evaluated using CT and micro CT imaging. DNA was extracted from the samples and average relative telomere length (RTL) was determined using real-time qPCR. RESULTS:The normal lungs showed a decrease in RTL with age (p < 0.0001). Of the diseased lungs, only BOS and RAS showed significant RTL decrease with increasing lung age (p = 0.0220 and p = 0.0272 respectively). Furthermore, we found that RTL showed considerable variability between samples within both normal and diseased lungs. cHP, BOS and RAS lungs had significant shorter RTL in comparison with normal lungs, after adjustment for lung age, sex and BMI (p < 0.0001, p = 0.0051 and p = 0.0301 respectively). When investigating the relation between RTL and regional disease severity in CF, cHP and RAS, no association was found. CONCLUSION:These results show a progressive decline in telomere length with age in normal, BOS and RAS lungs. cHP, BOS and RAS lungs demonstrated shorter RTL compared to normal lungs. Lung tissue RTL does not associate with regional disease severity within the lung. Therefore, tissue RTL does not seem to fully reflect peripheral blood telomere length.

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Telomere Shortening and Its Association with Cell Dysfunction in Lung Diseases.

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