Host Genes Can Affect The Efficacy Of Vaccines With Focus on Influenza

 

Host Genes Can Affect The Efficacy Of Vaccines

 

 

The efficacy of a vaccine varies person to person due to numerous factors, with this post focusing on biological sex and immune history. In influenza, pandemic level strains are made through antigenemic shift, a mixing of multiple influenza strains. This can occur when a nonhuman virus infects a human host, or a new strain is recreated through genetic re-assortment. The vaccines used to treat seasonal influenzas’ efficacy is measured by how well they can generate antibodies against HA. HAI antibodies bind to the HA antigen preventing the virus from binding to the receptor on respiratory epithelial cells. The humoral immune response can be impacted by single nucleotide polymorphisms related to human leukocyte antigens, cytokines and cytokine receptors when exposed to human-influenza vaccines. Biological sex, in regard to XX vs XY chromosomes, gonadal tissues, and sex hormone concentrations, affects the influenza vaccine acceptance rate and development of post vaccination immune responses. A half dose of the vaccine in females released antigens H1N1, H3N2, influenza B in the same concentrations as a full dose of the vaccine in males. This could be a reason behind why females that have been inoculated with the vaccine have a lower hospitalization rate than males. The patient's immune history is the other factor being explored in this article that impacts how a vaccine is received. The development of influenza-specific antibody responses in later years are heavily dependent on when the subject was exposed to influenza within the first ten years of life. This is due to OAS which activates B cell memory over de novo activation of naïve B cells.