’Ageing’ immune cell levels could predict how well we respond to vaccines

Cambridge scientists have identified a signature in the blood that could help predict how well an individual will respond to vaccines. The discovery, published today in Nature Communications , may explain why, even among vulnerable patient groups, some individuals have better responses to vaccines than others. Vaccination Credit: Ed Us By looking at patients- B cells, we hoped to learn how we could stratify vulnerable patients - in other words, work out whether some patients were at greater risk from infection, even after vaccination, than others Emily Horner During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become clear that some patients are better protected by vaccination than others. Many studies have shown that SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are less effective in people with weakened immune systems, but also that this effect is not uniform. Vaccination involves priming the immune system to look for - and get rid of - invading pathogens, such as viruses and bacteria. In part, this involves stimulating the production of antibodies uniquely programmed to identify a particular invader. These antibodies are themselves produced by a type of immune cell known as a B cell.