Epigenetic mechanisms regulating CD8+ T cell senescence in aging humans

Aging leads to the decline of immunity, rendering the elderly susceptible to infection and disease. In the CD8+ T cell compartment, aging leads to a substantial increase of cells with high levels of senescence-associated ß-galactosidase activity (SA-ßGal) and other senescence characteristics, including a pro-inflammatory transcriptome and impaired proliferative potential. Using senescent cell isolation coupled with multiomic profiling, here we characterized the epigenetic mechanisms regulating CD8+ T cell senescence in a cohort of younger and older donors. High levels of SA-ßGal activity defined changes to global transcriptomes and chromatin accessibility landscapes, with a minor effect of age. Widespread enhancer remodeling was required for the repression of functional CD8+ T cell genes and upregulation of inflammatory and secretory pathway genes. Mechanistically, the senescence program in CD8+ T cells was controlled by chromatin state-specific transcription factor (TF) networks whose composition was largely insensitive to donor age. Pharmacological inhibition of TF network nodes AP1, KLF5, and RUNX2 modulated the transcriptional output, demonstrating the feasibility of TF network perturbation as an approach to modulate CD8+ T cell senescence. Further, CD8+ T cell senescence gene signatures faithfully predicted refractoriness to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in a cohort of diffuse large B cell lymphomas and were highly enriched in the transcriptomes of peripheral CD8+ T cells of individuals with active systemic lupus erythematosus. Collectively, our findings demonstrate the potential of multiomic profiling in identifying key regulators of senescence across cell types and suggest a critical role of senescent CD8+ T cells in disease progression.