tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
What factors inhibit strong responses to seasonal flu vaccines in the elderly? Why do anti-flu antibodies last longer after vaccination in some people?
Answers are emerging from an Emory University-based systems biology analysis of blood samples from more than 400 volunteers who received seasonal flu vaccines. Bali Pulendran, PhD, led a team of researchers who tracked patterns of gene expression, known as molecular signatures, of strong immune responses in volunteers' blood across five consecutive seasons from 2007 to 2011.
The results are scheduled for online publication in Immunity December 15.
Pulendran, who is senior author of the Immunity paper, is Charles Howard Candler professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and a researcher at Emory's Yerkes National Primate Research Center.
In previous work, Dr. Pulendran and his research collaborators were able to define molecular signatures in blood cells a few days after vaccination. These molecular signatures can predict the strength of the immune response weeks later.
"Until this study, we didn't know whether those signatures would be similar in diverse human populations or across multiple seasons," Pulendran says. "Our results indicate that certain conserved elements of such signatures are indeed similar in the young and elderly as well as across multiple seasons."
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20...t-flu-vaccine-responses-in-young-and-old.aspx
Answers are emerging from an Emory University-based systems biology analysis of blood samples from more than 400 volunteers who received seasonal flu vaccines. Bali Pulendran, PhD, led a team of researchers who tracked patterns of gene expression, known as molecular signatures, of strong immune responses in volunteers' blood across five consecutive seasons from 2007 to 2011.
The results are scheduled for online publication in Immunity December 15.
Pulendran, who is senior author of the Immunity paper, is Charles Howard Candler professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and a researcher at Emory's Yerkes National Primate Research Center.
In previous work, Dr. Pulendran and his research collaborators were able to define molecular signatures in blood cells a few days after vaccination. These molecular signatures can predict the strength of the immune response weeks later.
"Until this study, we didn't know whether those signatures would be similar in diverse human populations or across multiple seasons," Pulendran says. "Our results indicate that certain conserved elements of such signatures are indeed similar in the young and elderly as well as across multiple seasons."
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20...t-flu-vaccine-responses-in-young-and-old.aspx