Pre-existing immunity and vaccine history determine hemagglutinin-specific CD4 T cell and IgG response following seasonal influenza vaccination

Katharina Wild, Maike Smits, Saskia Killmer, Shirin Strohmeier, Christoph Neumann-Haefelin, Bertram Bengsch, Florian Krammer, Martin Schwemmle, Maike Hofmann, Robert Thimme, Katharina Zoldan and Tobias Boettler ()
Additional contact information
Katharina Wild: Medical Center – University of Freiburg
Maike Smits: Medical Center – University of Freiburg
Saskia Killmer: Medical Center – University of Freiburg
Shirin Strohmeier: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Christoph Neumann-Haefelin: Medical Center – University of Freiburg
Bertram Bengsch: Medical Center – University of Freiburg
Florian Krammer: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Martin Schwemmle: University of Freiburg
Maike Hofmann: Medical Center – University of Freiburg
Robert Thimme: Medical Center – University of Freiburg
Katharina Zoldan: Medical Center – University of Freiburg
Tobias Boettler: Medical Center – University of Freiburg

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccination varies between individuals and might be affected by vaccination history among other factors. Here we show, by monitoring frequencies of CD4 T cells specific to the conserved hemagglutinin epitope HA118-132 and titres of IgG against the corresponding recombinant hemagglutinin protein, that antigen-specific CD4 T cell and antibody responses are closely linked to pre-existing immunity and vaccine history. Upon immunization, a strong early reaction is observed in all vaccine naïve participants and also in vaccine experienced individuals who have not received the respective seasonal vaccine in the previous year. This response is characterized by HA118-132 specific CD4 T cells with a follicular helper T cell phenotype and by ascending titers of hemagglutinin-specific antibodies from baseline to day 28 following vaccination. This trend was observed in only a proportion of those participants who received the seasonal vaccine the year preceding the study. Regardless of history, levels of pre-existing antibodies and CD127 expression on CD4 T cells at baseline were the strongest predictors of robust early response. Thus, both pre-existing immunity and vaccine history contribute to the response to seasonal influenza vaccines.

Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27064-3 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-27064-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27064-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().