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Immune response to Influenza virus and vaccine in old adults

Topical Collection for Immunity & Ageing: Immune response to influenza virus and vaccine in old adults

By Sean X. Leng (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA) and Albert Shaw (Yale School of Medicine, USA)

Seasonal influenza is a common respiratory infection that causes significant health burden worldwide, particularly in older adults. Studies of altered immune functions with aging in human and animal model systems have identified underlying mechanisms and offer potential therapeutic insights. Vaccination is an effective tool to reduce and even prevent severe infection and its complications. Recent improvements in vaccine design enhance vaccine efficacy for at-risk older adults. Understanding innate, humoral and cellular conditions of the host immune system that contribute to severe infection and to age-associated alterations in vaccine response represent important steps in reducing the disease burden of influenza for the growing older adult population.

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  1. Women/females report more adverse events (AE) following immunization than men/males for many vaccines, including the influenza and COVID-19 vaccines. This discrepancy is often dismissed as a reporting bias, ye...

    Authors: Janna R. Shapiro, Kumba Seddu, Han-Sol Park, John S. Lee, Patrick S. Creisher, Anna Yin, Patrick Shea, Helen Kuo, Huifen Li, Engle Abrams, Sean X. Leng, Rosemary Morgan and Sabra L. Klein
    Citation: Immunity & Ageing 2023 20:43
  2. Seasonal influenza causes significant morbidity and mortality with a disproportionately high disease burden in older adults. Strain-specific hemagglutination-inhibition (HAI) antibody titer is a well-establish...

    Authors: Bettina Wunderlich, Thomas Laskow, Huifen Li, Li Zhang, Engle Abrams, Jing Tian, Jun Yu, Yiyin Chen, Juliette Tavenier, Yushu Huang, Kawsar Talaat, Jay H. Bream, Qian-Li Xue, Graham Pawelec and Sean X. Leng
    Citation: Immunity & Ageing 2023 20:38
  3. Older adults are more vulnerable to seasonal influenza than younger adults. The immune responses of older persons to the influenza vaccine are usually poorer than those of young individuals, which is hypothesi...

    Authors: Tongling Xiao, Miaomiao Wei, Xiaokun Guo, Yu Zhang, Zhongyan Wang, Xiaoshuang Xia, Xuemei Qi, Lin Wang, Xin Li and Sean X. Leng
    Citation: Immunity & Ageing 2023 20:37
  4. Adjuvanted inactivated influenza vaccine (aIIV) and high-dose inactivated influenza vaccine (HD-IIV) are U.S.-licensed for adults aged ≥ 65 years. This study compared serum hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) an...

    Authors: Kenneth E. Schmader, Christine K. Liu, Brendan Flannery, Wes Rountree, Heidi Auerbach, Elizabeth D. Barnett, Elizabeth P. Schlaudecker, Christopher A. Todd, Marek Poniewierski, Mary A. Staat, Theresa Harrington, Rongxia Li, Karen R. Broder and Emmanuel B. Walter
    Citation: Immunity & Ageing 2023 20:30
  5. Aging is associated with progressive declines in immune responses leading to increased risk of severe infection and diminished vaccination responses. Influenza (flu) is a leading killer of older adults despite...

    Authors: Dominique E. Martin, Andreia N. Cadar, Hunter Panier, Blake L. Torrance, George A. Kuchel and Jenna M. Bartley
    Citation: Immunity & Ageing 2023 20:18
  6. Vaccination is important in influenza prevention but the immune response wanes with age. The circadian nature of the immune system suggests that adjusting the time of vaccination may provide an opportunity to ...

    Authors: Yihao Liu, Hui Zhang, Gang Yuan, Mi Yao, Bin Li, Jianying Chen, Yuling Fan, Ruohui Mo, Fenghua Lai, Xinwen Chen, Mengyuan Li, Binfeng Chen, Janet M. Lord, Sui Peng, KarKeung Cheng and Haipeng Xiao
    Citation: Immunity & Ageing 2022 19:46
  7. 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 influen...

    Authors: Janet E. McElhaney, Chris P. Verschoor, Melissa K. Andrew, Laura Haynes, George A. Kuchel and Graham Pawelec
    Citation: Immunity & Ageing 2020 17:10