AUTHOR=van den Berg Sara P. H. , Wong Albert , Hendriks Marion , Jacobi Ronald H. J. , van Baarle Debbie , van Beek Josine TITLE=Negative Effect of Age, but Not of Latent Cytomegalovirus Infection on the Antibody Response to a Novel Influenza Vaccine Strain in Healthy Adults JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=9 YEAR=2018 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2018.00082 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2018.00082 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=
Older adults are more vulnerable to influenza virus infection and at higher risk for severe complications and influenza-related death compared to younger adults. Unfortunately, influenza vaccine responses tend to be impaired in older adults due to aging of the immune system (immunosenescence). Latent infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV) is assumed to enhance age-associated deleterious changes of the immune system. Although lower responses to influenza vaccination were reported in CMV-seropositive compared to CMV-seronegative adults and elderly, beneficial effects of CMV infection were observed as well. The lack of consensus in literature on the effect of latent CMV infection on influenza vaccination may be due to the presence of pre-existing immunity to influenza in these studies influencing the subsequent influenza vaccine response. We had the unique opportunity to evaluate the effect of age and latent CMV infection on the antibody response to the novel influenza H1N1pdm vaccine strain during the pandemic of 2009, thereby reducing the effect of pre-existing immunity on the vaccine-induced antibody response. This analysis was performed in a large study population (