A team of researchers at Stanford Medicine has made a groundbreaking discovery that could revolutionize vaccination strategies. By analyzing blood platelets shortly after vaccination, they have identified a molecular signature that predicts how long a person’s immune response will last. The finding, published in Nature Immunology, provides new insights into vaccine durability and could lead to the development of more personalized vaccination approaches.
Led by Professor Bali Pulendran, the research team used a systems vaccinology approach to study immune responses in 50 healthy volunteers who received an experimental H5N1 bird flu vaccine. They found that platelets carried small bits of RNA from megakaryocytes, cells responsible for forming blood clots, which acted as proxies to predict the durability of immunity.
The researchers discovered that this molecular signature could be used to identify individuals who would benefit from a booster shot and when they would need one. To confirm their findings, they administered thrombopoietin (TPO), a drug that stimulates megakaryocytic activation, to mouse models and found a sixfold increase in anti-bird flu antibodies.
The study expanded to examine responses to seven different vaccines and found the same platelet-associated molecular signature predicting vaccine longevity. This suggests that the signature could be used to predict durable response to a range of vaccines, enabling more accurate predictions and personalized vaccination strategies tailored to individual immune profiles.
The Stanford team plans to investigate why certain vaccines activate megakaryocytes more effectively than others, which could lead to the development of stronger, more durable immune responses. This finding has significant implications for vaccine development, particularly for emerging diseases and pathogens.
Source: https://www.insideprecisionmedicine.com/topics/translational-research/blood-signature-predicts-how-long-immunity-will-last-from-a-vaccine