Immun Ageing. The immune response to influenza in older humans: beyond immune senescence

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Immun Ageing. 2020 May 7;17:10. doi: 10.1186/s12979-020-00181-1. eCollection 2020.
The immune response to influenza in older humans: beyond immune senescence.


McElhaney JE¹, Verschoor CP¹, Andrew MK², Haynes L³, Kuchel GA³, Pawelec G^1,4.

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Abstract

Despite widespread influenza vaccination programs, influenza remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in older adults. Age-related changes in multiple aspects of the adaptive immune response to influenza have been well-documented including a decline in antibody responses to influenza vaccination and changes in the cell-mediated response associated with immune senescence. This review will focus on T cell responses to influenza and influenza vaccination in older adults, and how increasing frailty or coexistence of multiple (≥2) chronic conditions contributes to the loss of vaccine effectiveness for the prevention of hospitalization. Further, dysregulation of the production of pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators contributes to a decline in the generation of an effective CD8 T cell response needed to clear influenza virus from the lungs. Current influenza vaccines provide only a weak stimulus to this arm of the adaptive immune response and rely on re-stimulation of CD8 T cell memory related to prior exposure to influenza virus. Efforts to improve vaccine effectiveness in older adults will be fruitless until CD8 responses take center stage.
? The Author(s) 2020.



KEYWORDS:

Broadly neutralizing antibodies; CD4 and CD8 T cell response; Cytokines; Dendritic cells; Granzyme B; Hemagglutination inhibition antibody response; Influenza; Influenza vaccination; Vaccine adjuvants


PMID:32399058PMCID:PMC7204009DOI:10.1186/s12979-020-00181-1
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