The interplay between cellular senescence and immune system in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases

The immune system holds a pivotal role in preserving tissue and organismal homeostasis. Indeed, dysregulated innate and adaptive immune activation is now considered to be a key player in the pathogenesis of diverse pathologies including cardiovascular diseases. Immune response is implemented not only as a consequence of target-organ damage but also as trigger for the onset and natural history of cardiovascular disorders. This is the evolving field of cardio-immunology which focuses on the interplay between the cardiovascular and immune system in health and disease.Cellular senescence represents an inherent stress response mechanism to various physiological and harmful insults. Of great interest, this fundamental biological process has been involved in both immune dysregulation and the pathophysiology of cardiovascular pathologies. While transient induction of senescence is beneficial for retaining organismal homeostasis as it contributes to immune system-mediated clearance of dysfunctional and damaged cells, the prolonged presence of senescent cells is linked with chronic inflammation, thus resulting in unfavorable outcomes such aging and age-related disorders such as cardiovascular diseases. Notably, senescence has been mostly studied in the non-immune compartment cells. Senescent immune cells have been poorly described and the term “immuno-senescence” has been incorrectly and almost exclusively associated with the organismal age-related deterioration of immune functionality and responsiveness that is driven by inflammaging. However, immune senescence exceeds far beyond the age-related and inflammation-associated changes of different immune cell populations. In addition, little is known about the contribution of immune cell senescence in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases, despite the fact that many of the underlying mechanisms in cardiovascular disorders have been recognized to have immune and inflammatory components. This collection aims to elucidate the multi-level regulation and the complex interplay between cellular senescence and immune function/dysfunction in the context of cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology, especially in the clinical scenarios of autoimmunity, myocarditis, ischemia and ischemia/reperfusion injury, metabolic disturbances, cardiac remodeling and cardio-oncology. We strongly advise authors to keep in line with published recommendations/guidelines for the accurate detection of cellular senescence in order to correctly discriminate immune senescence from immune exhaustion or anergy. The understanding of the underlying mechanisms that govern the interconnection between cellular senescence and immune activation has the potential to open new roads in cardiovascular therapeutics, in particular immunomodulatory along with senolytic strategies. Topic editors: Panagiotis Vasileiou, Konstantinos Evangelou, Iordanis Mourouzis Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/87179/the-interplay-between-cellular-senescence-and-immune-system-in-the-pathophysiology-of-cardiovascular-diseases