Immunosenescence, a decline in immune system function, has been linked to several age-related diseases and ageing syndromes. Very old adults (aged ≥ 85 years) live with multiple long-term conditions (MLTC, also known as multimorbidity)—a complex phenomenon of poor health defined by either counts, indices, or patterns, but little is known about the relationship between an ageing immune system and MLTC in this age group. We utilised baseline data from the Newcastle 85+ Study to investigate the associations between previously defined immunosenescence profiles of lymphocyte compartments and MLTC counts and patterns (from 16 chronic diseases/ageing syndromes). Seven hundred and three participants had MLTC and complete data for all 16 conditions, a median and mean of 5 (range 2–11) and 62.2% had ≥ 5 conditions. Three distinct MLTC patterns emerged by clustering: Cluster 1 (‘Low frequency cardiometabolic-cerebrovascular diseases’, n = 209), Cluster 2 (‘High ageing syndromes-arthritis’, n = 240), and Cluster 3 (‘Hypertensive-renal impairment’, n = 254). Although having a more senescent phenotype, characterised by higher frequency of CD4 and CD8 senescence-like effector memory cells and lower CD4/CD8 ratio, was not associated with MLTC compared with less senescent phenotype, the results warrant further investigation, including whether immunosenescence drives change in MLTC and influences MLTC severity in late adulthood.

免疫衰老是免疫系统功能下降，与多种与年龄相关的疾病和衰老综合症有关。非常年长的成年人（≥ 85 岁）患有多种长期疾病（MLTC，也称为多病症）——一种由计数、指数或模式定义的健康不佳的复杂现象，但人们对疾病与疾病之间的关系知之甚少这个年龄组的免疫系统老化和 MLTC。我们利用来自纽卡斯尔 85+ 研究的基线数据来研究先前定义的淋巴细胞区室免疫衰老概况与 MLTC 计数和模式（来自 16 种慢性疾病/衰老综合症）之间的关联。703 名参与者拥有 MLTC 和所有 16 种情况的完整数据，中位数和平均值为 5（范围 2-11），62.2% 有 ≥ 5 种情况。聚类出现了三种不同的 MLTC 模式：聚类 1（“低频心脑血管疾病”，n = 209），聚类 2（“高龄综合症 - 关节炎”，n = 240）和聚类 3（“高血压 - 肾功能不全” ', n = 254). 虽然具有更衰老的表型，其特征是更高频率的 CD4 和 CD8 衰老样效应记忆细胞和更低的 CD4 / CD8 比率，但与较少衰老表型相比与 MLTC 无关，但结果值得进一步研究，包括免疫衰老是否驱动改变在 MLTC 中并影响成年后期的 MLTC 严重程度。