Center on Aging and Department of Immunology, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, Connecticut, USA.
Immunol Invest. 2021 Oct;50(7):810-820. doi: 10.1080/08820139.2021.1909617. Epub 2021 Apr 8.
Older adults have diminished immune responses that lead to increased susceptibility and severity of infectious diseases. Influenza is a leading killer of older adults despite the availability of seasonal influenza vaccination. Influenza vaccines are strain specific, and their efficacy varies greatly year to year based on how well the vaccine virus matches the circulating strains. Additionally, older adults have reduced vaccination responses. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the increased mortality rate in older adults for infectious disease, and brought vaccine development to the forefront. The speed of vaccine development was met with an equally impressive vaccine efficacy. Interestingly, both mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines currently available have shown similar efficacy in both young and older adults. mRNA vaccine production has significantly reduced the production timeline compared to current influenza vaccines, making them particularly attractive for influenza vaccine development. Faster production coupled with improved efficacy would be a tremendous advancement in protecting older adults from influenza morbidity and mortality.
老年人的免疫反应减弱，导致他们更容易感染传染病，且病情更严重。尽管有季节性流感疫苗，但流感仍是老年人的主要杀手。流感疫苗具有株特异性，其有效性每年差异很大，这取决于疫苗病毒与流行株的匹配程度。此外，老年人的疫苗接种反应会减弱。COVID-19 大流行凸显了传染病导致老年人死亡率上升的问题，并将疫苗研发推向了前沿。疫苗研发速度之快，令人印象深刻，疫苗的有效性也同样令人瞩目。有趣的是，目前可用的两种基于 mRNA 的 COVID-19 疫苗在年轻人和老年人中的有效性相似。与当前的流感疫苗相比，mRNA 疫苗的生产大大缩短了生产时间线，这使得它们特别适合用于流感疫苗的开发。更快的生产速度加上更高的有效性，将是保护老年人免受流感发病率和死亡率的巨大进步。
