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Immunity & Ageing
Published in: Immunity & Ageing 1/2007

Open Access 01-12-2007 | Review

Challenges for vaccination in the elderly

Authors: Richard Aspinall, Giuseppe Del Giudice, Rita B Effros, Beatrix Grubeck-Loebenstein, Suryaprakash Sambhara

Published in: Immunity & Ageing | Issue 1/2007

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Abstract

The increased susceptibility of the elderly to infection presents a major challenge to public health services. An aging immune system is well documented as the cause of increased infection rates in elderly people. Such immunosenescence is multi-factorial and incompletely understood. Immunosenescent changes include malfunctioning of innate immune system cellular receptors; involution of the thymus, with consequent reduction of the naïve T cell population; alteration of the T cell population composition; modified phenotypes of individual T cells; and replicative senescence of memory cells expressing naïve markers. Unfortunately, immunosenescence also renders vaccination less effective in the elderly. It is therefore important that the vaccines used against common but preventable diseases, such as influenza, are specifically enhanced to overcome the reduced immune responsiveness of this vulnerable population.
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Metadata
Title
Challenges for vaccination in the elderly
Authors
Richard Aspinall
Giuseppe Del Giudice
Rita B Effros
Beatrix Grubeck-Loebenstein
Suryaprakash Sambhara
Publication date
01-12-2007
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Immunity & Ageing / Issue 1/2007
Electronic ISSN: 1742-4933
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-4933-4-9

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