Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Immune Response to Influenza Vaccination in an Elderly Population

  • Published:
Journal of Clinical Immunology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the serum antibody responses to both the hemagglutinin and the neuraminidase antigens of inactivated influenza vaccine in 45 elderly and 28 younger adults. After vaccination, antihemagglutinin antibody levels increased significantly and mean fold increases ranged from 2.8 to 22.0. Seroprotection rates were between 42.2 and 91.1% 1 month after vaccination and 15.6 and 84.4% 5 months afterward. Seroresponse rates ranged from 42.2 to 91.1% 1 month after vaccination and 15.6 to 82.2% 5 months afterward. After vaccination antineuraminidase antibody levels increased significantly and mean fold increases ranged from 3.6 to 12.3. Significantly higher antibody responses to both hemagglutinin and neuraminidase were observed for antigen A(H3N2) than for antigens A(H1N1) and B. In most instances there were no statistically significant differences between the elderly and the control subjects. Influenza vaccine was immunogenic in the institutionalized elderly, who developed good antibody responses to influenza hemagglutinin and neuraminidase antigens.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Prevention and control of influenza: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). MMWR 51:RR-3, 2002

  2. Sprenger MJW, Mulder PGH, Beyer WEP, van Strik R, Masurel N: Impact of influenza on mortality in relation to age and underlying disease, 1967–1989. Int J Epidemiol 22:334-340, 1993

    Google Scholar 

  3. Perrotta DM, Decker M, Glezen WP: Acute respiratory disease hospitalizations as a measure of impact of epidemic influenza. Am J Epidemiol 122:468-476, 1985

    Google Scholar 

  4. Strassburg MA, Greenland S, Sorvillo FJ, Lieb LE, Habel LA: Influenza in the elderly: Report of an outbreak and a review of vaccine effectiveness reports. Vaccine 4:38-44, 1986

    Google Scholar 

  5. Meiklejohn G, Hall H: Unusual outbreak of influenza A in a Wyoming nursing home. J Am Geriatr Soc 35:742-46, 1987

    Google Scholar 

  6. Goodman RA, Orenstein WA, Munro TF, Smith SC, Sikes RK: Impact of influenza A in a nursing home. JAMA 247:1451-1453, 1982

    Google Scholar 

  7. Gravenstein S, Miller BA, Drinka P: Prevention and control of influenza A outbreaks in long-term care facilities. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 13(1):49-54, 1992

    Google Scholar 

  8. Gomolin IH, Leib HB, Arden NH, Sherman FT: Control of influenza outbreaks in the nursing home: guidelines for diagnosis and management. J Am Geriatr Soc 43(1):71-74, 1995

    Google Scholar 

  9. Zimmerman RK: Prevention of influenza by expanded ages for routine vaccination. J Fam Pract 49:15-21, 2000

    Google Scholar 

  10. Palache AM: Influenza vaccine: A reappraisal of their use. Drugs 54:841-856, 1997

    Google Scholar 

  11. Patriarca PA, Weber JA, Parker RA, Hall WN, Kendal AP, Bregman DJ, Schonberger LB: Efficacy of influenza vaccine in nursing homes: Reduction in illness and complications during an influenza A(H3N2) epidemic. JAMA 253:1136-1139, 1985

    Google Scholar 

  12. Fedson DS: Evaluating the impact of influenza vaccination. A North American perspective. PharmacoEconomics 9 (Suppl 3):54-61, 1996

    Google Scholar 

  13. Gross PA, Hermogenes AW, Sacks HS, Lau J, Levandowski RA: The efficacy of influenza vaccine in elderly persons. A meta-analysis and review of the literature. Ann Intern Med 123:518-527, 1995

    Google Scholar 

  14. Powers DC: Influenza vaccination strategies for the elderly. Aging Immunol Infect Dis 5(1):47-54, 1994

    Google Scholar 

  15. WHO Collaborating Centers for Reference and Research on Influenza: Concepts and Procedures for Laboratory-Based Influenza Surveillance. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Diseases Control, Atlanta, Georgia, July 1982

  16. Aymard-Henry M, Coleman MT, Dowdle WR, Laver WG, Schild GC, Webster RG: Influenza virus neuraminidase and neuraminidase inhibition test procedures. Bull WHO 48:199-202, 1973

    Google Scholar 

  17. Douglas AR: Assay of neuraminidase (NA) activity and neuraminidase inhibition test. Report of the WHO International Collaborative Center for Reference and Research on the Influenza Virus at Mill Hill. London: National Institute for Medical Research, 1993

    Google Scholar 

  18. Brydak LB, Machaℓa M: Humoral immune response to influenza vaccination in patients from high-risk groups. Drugs 60:35-53, 2000

    Google Scholar 

  19. Nicholson KG. Socioeconomics of influenza and influenza vaccination in Europe. PharmacoEconomics 9:75-78, 1996

    Google Scholar 

  20. Morgan R, King D, Turnbull CJ: Influenza vaccination: Do the aged reap the benefit? Postgrad Med J 71:22-23, 1995

    Google Scholar 

  21. Ambrosch F, Fedson DS: Influenza vaccination in 29 countries. PharmacoEconomics 16 (Suppl 1):47-54, 1999

    Google Scholar 

  22. Brydak LB: Diagnostyka i profilaktyka grypy niezbedne w praktyce lekarza rodzinnego [Diagnostics and prophylaxis of influenza necessary in a family physician's practice]. Standardy Medyczne 12:16-29, 2001 (in Polish)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Glathe H, Bigl S, Grosche A: Comparison of humoral immune responses to trivalent influenza split vaccine in young, middle-aged and elderly people. Vaccine 11:702-705, 1993

    Google Scholar 

  24. Beyer WEP, Palache AM, Baljet M, Masurel N: Antibody induction by influenza vaccines in the elderly: A review of the literature. Vaccine 7:385-394, 1989

    Google Scholar 

  25. Bernstein E, Kaye D, Abrutyn E, Gross P, Dorfman M, Murasko DM: Immune response to influenza vaccination in a large healthy elderly population. Vaccine 17:82-94, 1999

    Google Scholar 

  26. Govaert TME, Sprenger MJW, Dinant GJ, Aretz K, Masurel N, Knottnerus JA: Immune response to influenza vaccination in elderly people. A randomized double blind placebo controlled trial. Vaccine 12:1185-1189, 1994

    Google Scholar 

  27. Remarque EJ, de Bruijn IA, Boersma WJA, Masurel N, Ligthart GJ: Altered antibody response to influenza (H1N1) vaccine in healthy elderly people as determined by HI, ELISA, and neutralisation assay. J Med Virol 55:82-87, 1998

    Google Scholar 

  28. Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products (CPMP): Note for guidance on harmonisation of requirements for influenza vaccines (revision). CPMP/BWP/214/96, March 12, 1997

  29. Commission of the European Communities. The Rules Governing Medicinal Products in the European Community. Volume III, Addendum No. 2, Guidelines on the quality, safety, and efficacy of medicinal products for human use 93–99, 1992

  30. Van Hoecke Ch, Prikazsky V, ütö I., Menschikowski C: Immunogenicity of an inactivated split influenza vaccine in institutionalized elderly patients. Gerontology 42:190-198, 1996

    Google Scholar 

  31. Brydak LB: Influenza and Its Prophylaxis. Springer PWN, Warsaw, 1998

    Google Scholar 

  32. Ada GL, Jones PD: The immune response to influenza infection. Curr Topics Microbiol Immunol 128:1-54, 1986

    Google Scholar 

  33. Johansson BE, Moran TM, Kilbourne ED: Antigen-presenting B cells and helper T cells cooperatively mediate intravirionic antigenic competition between influenza A virus surface glycoproteins. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 84: 6869-6873, 1987

    Google Scholar 

  34. Kilbourne ED: Comparative efficacy of neuraminidase-specific and conventional influenza virus vaccines in induction of antibody to neuraminidase in humans. J Infect Dis 134:384-394, 1976

    Google Scholar 

  35. Kilbourne ED, Christenson U, Sande M: Antibody response in man to influenza virus neuraminidase following influenza. J Virol 2:761-762, 1968

    Google Scholar 

  36. Goronzy JJ, Fulbright JW, Crowson CS, Poland GA, O'Fallon WM, Wyand CM: Value of immunological markers in predicting responsiveness to influenza vaccination in elderly individuals. J Virol 75(24):12182-12187, 2001

    Google Scholar 

  37. Hurwitz ES, Haber M, Chang A, Shope T, Teo ST, Giesick JS, Ginsberg MM, Cox NJ: Studies of the 1996–1997 inactivated influenza vaccine among children attending day care: Immunologic response, protection against infection, and clinical effectiveness. J Infect Dis 182:1218-1221, 2000

    Google Scholar 

  38. Iorio AM, Zei T, Neri M, Alatri A: Possible correlation between low antigenic drift of A(H1N1) influenza viruses and induction of HI antibodies. Eur J Epidemiol 12(6):589-594, 1996

    Google Scholar 

  39. Wright PF, Thomson J, Karzon DT: Differing virulence of H1N1 and H3N2 influenza strains. Am J Epidemiol 112:814-819, 1980

    Google Scholar 

  40. Monto AS, Koopman JS, Longini IM: The Tecumseh study of illness. XIII. Influenza infection and disease, 1976–1981. Am J Epidemiol 121:811-822, 1985

    Google Scholar 

  41. Brydak LB, Guzy J, Starzyk J, Machała M, Góźdź S: Humoral immune response after vaccination against influenza in patients with breast cancer. Support Care Cancer 9:65-68, 2000

    Google Scholar 

  42. Rokicka-Milewska R, Brydak LB, Machała M, Klukowska A: Antibody response to influenza vaccine in children with severe and mild hemophila. Int J Pediatr Hematol/Oncol 7:21-27, 2000

    Google Scholar 

  43. Brydak LB, Rajkowski T, Machała M, Wêglarska J, Sieniawska M: Humoral antibody response following influenza vaccination in patients with nephrotic syndrome. Antiinfect Drugs Chemother 16:151-155, 1998

    Google Scholar 

  44. Zei T, Neri M, Iorio AM: Immunogenicity of trivalent subunit and split influenza vaccines (1989–90 winter season) in volunteers of different groups of age. Vaccine 9:613-617, 1991

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Influenza Center, National Institute of Hygiene, ul. Chocimska 24, 00-791, Warsaw, Poland

    Lidia B. Brydak & Magdalena Machała

  2. Department of Histology and Immunology, Medical University of Gdańsk, ul. Dębinki 1, 80-211, Gdansk, Poland

    Jolanta Myśliwska, Andrzej Myśliwski & Piotr Trzonkowski

Authors
  1. Lidia B. Brydak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Magdalena Machała
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jolanta Myśliwska
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Andrzej Myśliwski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Piotr Trzonkowski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lidia B. Brydak.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Brydak, L.B., Machała, M., Myśliwska, J. et al. Immune Response to Influenza Vaccination in an Elderly Population. J Clin Immunol 23, 214–222 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023314029788

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023314029788

Search

Navigation