Understanding the immune response to seasonal influenza vaccination in older adults: a systems biology approach

Abstract

Annual vaccination against seasonal influenza is recommended to decrease disease-related mortality and morbidity. However, one population that responds suboptimally to influenza vaccine is adults over the age of 65 years. The natural aging process is associated with a complex deterioration of multiple components of the host immune system. Research into this phenomenon, known as immunosenescence, has shown that aging alters both the innate and adaptive branches of the immune system. The intricate mechanisms involved in immune response to influenza vaccine, and how these responses are altered with age, have led us to adopt a more encompassing systems biology approach to understand exactly why the response to vaccination diminishes with age. Here, the authors review what changes occur with immunosenescence, and some immunogenetic factors that influence response, and outline the systems biology approach to understand the immune response to seasonal influenza vaccination in older adults.

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Figure 1. Systems biology approach to developing an influenza A/H1N1 vaccine-induced immune profile

Multifunction immune and systems analysis over the duration of vaccine response will be used to determine individual immune outcomes, functional pathways and longitudinal immune profiles that will lead to the explanation and prediction of immune response to influenza A/H1N1 vaccine. This will be accomplished using a fusion of traditional measures of humoral, cellular and innate immunity, paired with measures of gene regulation and large-scale analysis of protein response. Immune response to seasonal influenza vaccination will be measured after in vitro stimulation of subject peripheral blood mononuclear cells with live influenza A/California/H1N1 virus. Assays specific to markers of immunosenescence will also be used to measure the influence of age on immune response to vaccine.