TLR5 and gut micro-organisms involved in influenza vaccine response, research suggests

Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of the influenza virus on cell surface

The mechanisms by which influenza vaccination elicits a host immune response are not fully understood, and a significant proportion of vaccinated individuals – particularly the young and elderly – remain susceptible to infection.

Bali Pulendran, from the Emory Vaccine Center, Atlanta, Georgia, and colleagues recently identified a correlation between toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) expression shortly after vaccination and the subsequent magnitude of the antibody response.

Writing in Immunity
[1]
(online, September 2014), Pulendran’s group now demonstrates that TLR5 is required for the antibody response to vaccination and that it acts via the intestinal microbiota.

Interestingly, TLR5-mediated sensing of the microbiota impacted antibody responses to the trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine and to the inactivated polio vaccine but not to adjuvanted vaccines or the live-attenuated yellow fever vaccine. 

References

  [1] Oh JZ, Ravindran R, Chassaing B et al. TLR5-Mediated Sensing of Gut Microbiota Is Necessary for Antibody Responses to Seasonal Influenza Vaccination. Immunity 2014;41(3): 478-492. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2014.08.009 (accessed 22 September 2014)

 

Last updated
Citation
The Pharmaceutical Journal, PJ, 27 September 2014, Vol 293, No 7829;293(7829):DOI:10.1211/PJ.2014.20066516

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