People with Down syndrome may be at high autoimmune risk due to accelerated immune system aging Science Translational Medicine

Click the blue text above to follow us Scientists have found that people with Down syndrome have an accelerated aging of the immune system, a finding that could explain the long-observed link between Down syndrome and autoimmune diseases
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Down syndrome is one of the most common inherited congenital disorders, affecting approximately one in every 800 births
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Affected people usually have at least some degree of intellectual disability, but the condition can also lead to a range of health complications that can affect quality of life and longevity
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For example, people with Down syndrome, who tend to have compromised immune systems, are at a much higher risk of developing autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes than the general population
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However, more work is currently needed to understand how Down syndrome affects the composition and aging of immune cells throughout the human lifespan
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To answer this question, Katharina Lambert and colleagues conducted an in-depth analysis of the immune systems of 28 people with Down syndrome of various ages (2-55 years old), 25 people with type 1 diabetes, and 28 healthy volunteers
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The researchers designed and utilized a new analytical platform called IMPACD, along with a model of immune aging called the "immune clock," that allowed them to look for unique and shared immune signatures across the cohort
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Taken together, their deep phenotypic analysis shows that the immune systems of people with Down syndrome appear to be aging faster than expected
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For example, these patients showed abnormal changes in the T-cell compartment typically seen in older adults, which the authors linked to an immune-signaling molecule called interleukin-6.

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In addition, even the youngest patients with Down syndrome showed typical signs of inflammation, a low-grade inflammation that is common in older adults and increases the risk of the autoimmune system
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Lambert et al.
suggest that the therapy may be able to suppress autoimmunity and inflammation in Down syndrome and the general population
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They also speculate that the findings may help explain Down syndrome and other clinical differences, such as age thresholds that reduce the risk of COVID-19 outcomes
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