Journal of Vaccines & Vaccination

Why and how to predict response to infl uenza vaccination?

International Conference & Exhibition on Vaccines & Vaccination

22-24 Nov 2011 Philadelphia Airport Marriott, USA

Ljiljana Trtica-Majanri

Accepted Abstracts: J Vaccines Vaccin

Abstract:

During recent decades, eff orts have been focused on defi ning markers that can identify individuals who are likely to respond poorly to infl uenza vaccine. Th is seemed important because of the confl icting results of published reports on the immune response to infl uenza vaccine in eldely persons. Now when rapid progress in biotechnology is likely to ensure alternative vaccination approaches, it is even more important to answer this question. Although factors aff ecting this response are already known, including older age, past exposure to infl uenza viruses and chronic diseases, the challenge remains in constructing useful model of prediction. A major diffi culty is the wide range of factors related to chronic ageing diseases. In relation to this, the theoretical background is limited, as immunoregulatory disorders that might account for the defi cient immune response to infl uenza vaccine observed in chronically ill and elderly patients have not yet been found. It has been realised, for example, that diff erences in stages of a disease, comorbidity, lifestyle factors, or particular biochemical disorders, can all contribute to the variation of immune response to infl uenza vaccine. To deal with the complexity of this task, we reached out for the concept of a systems biology, originally applied to analyse high- dimensional, non-linear data provided by new sophisticated diagnostic methods, such as genomics and proteomics. Th e process of construction of the model for prediciting response to infl uenza vaccine is presented and the model`s usefulness for the practical application is discussed.