The relationship between gut bacteria and influenza vaccine response

  Recently, researchers have found that treating mice with antibiotics can remove most of the intestinal bacteria or increase the antibody response during seasonal influenza vaccination under sterile conditions. Research results indicate that vaccination before or during antibiotic treatment may impair the antibody response of certain vaccines in humans. This result may also help explain why the immunity caused by certain vaccines varies around the world.

  The study was published in the journal Immunology. Dr. Bali Pulendran and his colleagues demonstrated that gut bacteria have a strong immune response to seasonal influenza and inactivated polio vaccine.

  Immune stimulating substances (adjuvants) contained in the vaccine antibody response will not be affected by the lack of intestinal bacteria. For example, bacteria are not a critical factor in the DTP vaccine. "Our results show that gut microbes can have a powerful impact on human immunization vaccines, and even cause vaccine immunity to decrease," Pulendran said. The motivation for this study was the analysis of previous studies on human immune responses to influenza vaccines. 'S laboratories have pioneered the use of "systematic vaccinology" methods. He and his colleagues observed the human influenza vaccine, the expression of the gene encoding TLR5, and a few days later vaccination produced a strong antibody response. TLR5 encodes a protein that prompts immune cells to detect cytoflagellin.

  Researchers found that the ability of immune cells to detect flagellin seems to be a key part of the vaccine response. Mice lack TLR5-but they can still transplant bacteria, which reduces the immune response to influenza vaccine, similar to antibiotic treatment or sterile mice. Oral improved antibiotics to treat mice containing flagellin bacteria, but not to treat mice lacking flagellin mutant bacteria, will restore the reduced antibody response.

  "These results indicate that gut bacteria play an important role in improving vaccination immunity and increase the possibility that microbes can be used to modulate vaccine efficacy," Pulendran said. "The key question is to what extent this affects human protective immunity." Pulendran said his team is planning a study on humans to solve this problem.