Researchers find that having a more functionally diverse set of immune cells was correlated with increased protection from flu symptoms
Influenza infection could more
accurately predict if an individual would develop symptoms than current methods
which primarily rely on antibody levels, according to a study.
The study found certain immune cells
were associated with increased protection, while other immune cells were
associated with increased susceptibility to developing symptoms after catching
the virus.
“We’ve been struggling for decades, if
not centuries, with why some people get sick with infections and some don’t,”
said Richard Webby, from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s Department of
Host-Microbe Interactions.
“This is one of the best attempts to try
and figure that out for influenza. We were able to measure many different
immune parameters from a single blood draw and correlate them with protection
from, or susceptibility to, infection symptoms.”
In the study, published in the journal
Nature Immunology, the researchers found that having a more functionally
diverse set of immune cells was correlated with increased protection from flu
symptoms.
The group identified these cells by
comparing the immune cells present in the blood of patients who had symptoms
from flu infection to those who were asymptomatic or uninfected.
The blood samples, taken up to six
months before that flu season, showed very different sets of immune cells in
the two groups.
Those without symptoms not only had a
more functionally diverse set of immune cells but those cells were also
associated with an influenza-specific long-term response, sometimes called the
memory response.
Patients with symptoms tended to have a
more similar set of inflammatory immune cells, which are more likely to be
involved in a nonspecific, functionally narrow and short-term response.
Further, the study showed that those
vaccinated for the flu generally had increased protective anti-flu immune
cells, improving their chance of avoiding symptoms.
Those rarer individuals who were
unvaccinated and avoided symptoms seemed to have a set of immune cells that
mimicked the functions of the protective cells in the vaccinated population.
This may explain why some people are
less affected by the flu, even when unvaccinated, than others, but it still
suggests vaccination creates the best chance of avoiding symptoms.
One way to encourage this vaccine uptake
is to determine the inherent risk in staying unvaccinated accurately.
“Our results reemphasize that
vaccination prevents influenza symptoms, and now we can point to the increased
levels of those immune cells correlated with that protection,” said Paul Thomas
from St. Jude Department of Immunology
“Get your annual flu vaccine.”
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