Current News
22 November 2011Journal of Clinical Investigation
Boosting the aged immune response to flu virus
As people age, their immune system becomes less robust. This makes them more susceptible to serious and frequently life-threatening infections with viruses that affect the respiratory tract such as influenza A virus (IAV). Stanley Perlman and colleagues, at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, have now identified a new immune system defect in aged mice that makes them more susceptible than young mice to developing severe clinical disease upon infection with respiratory viruses such as IAV.
Importantly, they were able to reverse the defect by inhibiting the immune molecule PGD2. Perlman and colleagues therefore suggest that inhibition of PGD2 could provide a way to improve clinical outcomes in older patients with severe respiratory viral infections and perhaps more importantly enhance the efficacy of flu vaccines in the elderly. The scientists report their findings in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
In an accompanying commentary, Thomas Braciale and Taeg Kim, at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, discuss in more detail the clinical significance of the work of Perlman and colleagues.
Article
Jincun Zhao et al.: Age-related increases in PGD2 expression impair respiratory DC migration, resulting in diminished T cell responses upon respiratory virus infection in mice. J Clin Invest. 2011;121(12):4921–4930. doi:10.1172/JCI59777
Commentary
Thomas Braciale and Taeg Kim: Slowing down with age: lung DCs do it too. Journal of Clinical Investigation. J Clin Invest. 2011;121(12):4636–4639. doi:10.1172/JCI61367
