Obesity is associated with an altered baseline and post-vaccination influenza antibody repertoire

Abstract

As highlighted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination is critical for infectious disease prevention and control. Obesity is associated with increased morbidity and mortality from respiratory virus infections. While obese individuals respond to influenza vaccination, what is considered a seroprotective response may not fully protect the global obese population. In a cohort vaccinated with the 2010-2011 trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine, baseline immune history and vaccination responses were found to significantly differ in obese individuals compared to healthy controls, especially towards the 2009 pandemic strain of A/H1N1 influenza virus. Young, obese individuals displayed responses skewed towards linear peptides versus conformational antigens, suggesting aberrant obese immune response. Overall, these data have vital implications for the next generation of influenza vaccines, and towards the current SARS-CoV-2 vaccination campaign.

Mapping antibody footprints using binding profiles

“…Another commonly used strategy for epitope mapping of antibody responses is peptide microarrays, which typically include overlapping 15- to 20-mer peptides that span the immunogen of interest. 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 One specific study showed that a peptide microarray signature could be used to predict survival in mice following influenza challenge. 81 The major drawback of this approach is that it mainly identifies antibodies that target linear epitopes, and therefore it is not well suited to profile binding of conformational mAbs.…”