How does pre-existing immunity interact with other factors to impact influenza vaccine responses?

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flu
vaccines
research
Author

W. Zane Billings

Published

April 6, 2021

Abstract

Previous mechanistic models predict that fold change in influenza antibody level should have a negative linear relationship with pre-vaccination titer on a log-log scale. Models also predict that higher vaccine doses should have a higher intercept, but parallel slopes. Using vaccine cohort data, we found that the first conclusion was true, but the latter was not always true. Now we are working to understand in which cases the model deviates from expected predictions.

I gave a two-minute lightning talk at the CIVR-HRP (Center for Influenza) annual meeting in Fall 2021. CIVR-HRP is an NIH-funded CIVIC (Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centers) site at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA, but the meeting was held virtually due to COVID-19. There were no virtual poster presentations, so I gave a lightning talk instead.

The slides can be found here. They are also embedded below. In short, we used vaccine cohort data, and found that the data were consistent with some predictions of prior mechanistic models, but not all.