Age-Related T Cell Changes & Vaccine Response
- As flu season approaches and public health officials roll out their annual push for vaccination,Allen Institute scientists are learning why vaccines can trigger a weaker response in older...
- In the largest study of its kind, published in Nature, scientists discovered that our T cells - key players in coordinating immune responses - undergo profound...
- We were surprised that inflammation is not driving healthy aging.
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Why Flu Vaccines Are less Effective in Older Adults: A New Understanding of T Cell Changes
As flu season approaches and public health officials roll out their annual push for vaccination,Allen Institute scientists are learning why vaccines can trigger a weaker response in older adults,around age 65,and what can be done to improve them. These insights open the door to designing more effective vaccines.
In the largest study of its kind, published in Nature, scientists discovered that our T cells – key players in coordinating immune responses – undergo profound and specific changes as we age.These changes, far from being random or a byproduct of chronic disease and inflammation, are a essential feature of healthy aging and will happen to all of us as we get older.
We were surprised that inflammation is not driving healthy aging. We think inflammation is driven by something self-reliant from just the age of a person. This is importent because there’s been research showing similar findings that inflammation and aging don’t go hand in hand, and your immune system is just changing with age.
Claire Gustafson, Ph.D., assistant investigator at the Allen Institute and one of the lead authors of the study
the changes also point to why vaccines, including the annual flu shot and COVID-19 boosters, tend to be less effective in older adults.
The Changes Scientists Discovered
T cells are a critical part of our immune system that help “train” white blood cells, called B cells, to produce antibodies in response to viruses and vaccines.But this study found that memory T cells in older adults undergo a dramatic shift toward what is known as a “Th2-like” state, which is a change in gene expression that fundamentally alters how these cells respond to threats. Researchers found this shift directly affects B cells’ ability to generate strong antibody responses. Simply put, the flu shot might still deliver the right viral components, but if the memory T cells aren’t functioning properly, the body struggles to respond effectively.