Immune Senescence and Vaccination in the Elderly

Pierre Olivier Lang, Sheila Govind, Annemieke Ten Bokum, Natalie Kenny, Emmanuel Matas, David Pitts, Richard Aspinall

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

50 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Vaccines are powerful public health tools that have been of tremendous benefit in protecting vulnerable populations worldwide from many pathogens. However, vaccine- preventable diseases still remain a considerable burden and this is particularly true among aging and aged populations in industrialized countries. The predicted demographic shift in the population landscape towards an ever-increasing aging population and the evidence suggesting that older individuals mount less-than optimal immune response to vaccination have raised the question of improving vaccine responses in older individuals. This review presents recent progress in the understanding at the cellular and molecular levels of age related immune decline and strategies to translate current knowledge into the development of immunization strategies to promote healthy aging, keeping older members of our society autonomous and independent.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2541-2550
Number of pages10
JournalCurrent Topics in Medicinal Chemistry
Volume13
Issue number20
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2013

Keywords

  • Healthy aging
  • vaccine effectiveness
  • vaccine development
  • vaccine design
  • vaccination
  • older adults
  • immunosenescence

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Drug Discovery

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