David Nace, MD, Co-Authors Study on the Impact of Physical Frailty on the Response to Inactivated Influenza Vaccine in Older Adults
January 4, 2021
According to the study published in the journal Aging, reduced effectiveness of the influenza vaccine in older, frail individuals may be attributed to immunosenescence-related changes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells that are not reflected in antibody levels.
Compared with non-frail participants, frail participants expressed decreased cell proliferation, metabolism, antibody production, and interferon signaling genes. But frail participants also showed elevated gene expression in IL-8 signaling, T-cell exhaustion, and oxidative stress pathways compared with non-frail participants.
This data shed light on altered transcriptional programs in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in frail, older adults, which are present even in the absence of changes in antibody titers and may contribute to the design of new influenza vaccines. It also shows that hemagglutination inhibition antibody titers may not be the most appropriate assessment of immune response to influenza vaccination among older adults.
Read the full study here.
