Category: Flu Vaccine

If you want to get the most out of your flu vaccine, you might want to cut out the red meat and butter, new research suggests.

A new study showed that feeding obese mice a low-fat menu before getting vaccinated made them better at fighting off the flu virus.

A low fat diet focuses on eating items where only 30 percent of calories are from fat,according to the American Cancer Society.This means including products like skim milk, lean meats like chicken, whole grains and plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Experts conducting the research found that a low-fat diet results in significant, sustained weight loss which strengthens the immune system.

Vaccinations work by training the body's defense cells to recognize and fight viral material - which is why they are effective when introduced to a healthy immune system.

Switching to a low fat diet before flu vaccination gave obese mice a better chance at surviving the flu virus.

A low fat diet stands in contrast to the western diet, which is traditionally high in fat and processed foods, according to Dr Stacey Schultz-Cherry, the deputy director of the WHO's Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds, who co-authored the new study.

Overweight people are twice as likely to catch the flu than average weight people, even when both groups have been vaccinated, according to 2017 research from the Human Vaccine Institute.

Roughly 370,000 Americans were hospitalized by the flu in 2023, and roughly 24,000 died, according to the CDC.

Though the agency didn't report specifics, it estimates 95 percent of those hospitalized had an underlying condition that worsens flu severity - like obesity, high blood pressure or heart disease.

The study was performed on two groups of 20 mice. The mice that lost weight before getting vaccinated all survived a brush with the flu- but those who didn't diet did not.

Dr Shultz-Cherry's research, which took place at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, addresses this flu vaccine gap for obese people.

She and her colleagues dove into the issue by giving the flu vaccine to 20 obese mice.

Half of those mice were put on a low fat diet prior to being vaccinated. About a month later, all of the mice were exposed to the flu.

The ten mice that went on the low-fat diet survived. But all ten mice who continued eating a fatty-diet died.

Interestingly, when the researchers put a different group of mice on a diet after being vaccinated, the results weren't nearly as effective.

The American Heart Association (AHA) scored 10 popular diets for their potential benefits in staving off heart disease.

Only two of the mice on the diet survived, the remaining 18 mice - both those on a low-fat and high-fat diet - died.

'Weight loss can impact the effectiveness of the vaccine, but the timing of the weight loss makes a very big difference' Dr Schultz-Cherrytold New Scientist.

However, there's still a long way to go before we can assume that the same will hold true in humans, Dr Schultz-Cherry said.

Mice and humans have a lot of biological similarities, but human bodies are much more complex, Dr Ri Scarborough, a veterinarian and cancer researcher at Monash University, wrote for the Conversation.

'Because of species differences, something that is effective and safe in an animal might not be so in a human,' Dr Scarborough said.

Mice, for example, only live about two years. That means that a month for a mouse would be years for a human, Schultz-Cherry said.

All told, this could be a new avenue to explore in the future for better protecting people with obesity.

'We don't know for sure, but if the outcome of using GLP-1 drugs is weight loss and improved metabolic health, we would hypothesize that it will help.'

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The diet to eat just before you have a flu shot... - Daily Mail

(Precision Vaccinations News)

CureVac N.V. today announced the start of the Phase 1 part of a combined Phase 1/2 clinical trialof an investigational influenza A (H5N1) pre-pandemic vaccine candidate developed in collaboration with GSK.

In the initial Phase 1 dose-escalation part of the study, up to five dose levels will be assessed compared to a placebo control. The study will be conducted in the United States.

The monovalent vaccine candidate is based on CureVac's proprietary second-generationmessenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) backbone and encodes an influenzaA H5-antigen.

Dr. Myriam Mendila, CureVac's Chief Development Officer, commented in a press release on April 24, 2024,"This clinical milestone, in collaboration with GSK, expands the application of our mRNA technology into an additional indication in infectious diseases and addresses the need to be prepared for potential future pandemics."

The H5N1 avian influenza virus is considered a potentialpandemic threat. It is known to sporadically cross-species from its original bird host to other animal hosts, such as bears, cows, foxes, and humans worldwide.

The combined Phase 1/2 study will evaluate the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of an investigational influenza A (H5N1) pre-pandemic vaccine candidate in healthy younger and older adults.

The broad CureVac-GSK infectious disease collaboration was first announced in July 2020.

As of April 2024, the U.S. government has approved a bird flu vaccine (Audenz) and invested hundreds of millions in preparing avian influenza vaccine candidates.

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mRNA Bird Flu Vaccine Candidate Launches Study in the U.S. - Precision Vaccinations

Scientists at UC Riverside have demonstrated a new, RNA-based vaccine strategy that is effective against any strain of a virus and can be used safely even by babies or the immunocompromised.

Every year, researchers try to predict the four influenza strains that are most likely to be prevalent during the upcoming flu season. And every year, people line up to get their updated vaccine, hoping the researchers formulated the shot correctly.

The same is true of COVID vaccines, which have been reformulated to target sub-variants of the most prevalent strains circulating in the U.S.

This new strategy would eliminate the need to create all these different shots, because it targets a part of the viral genome that is common to all strains of a virus. The vaccine, how it works, and a demonstration of its efficacy in mice is described in apaperpublished today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

What I want to emphasize about this vaccine strategy is that it is broad, said UCR virologist and paper author Rong Hai. It is broadly applicable to any number of viruses, broadly effective against any variant of a virus, and safe for a broad spectrum of people. This could be the universal vaccine that we have been looking for.

Traditionally, vaccines contain either a dead or modified, live version of a virus. The bodys immune system recognizes a protein in the virus and mounts an immune response. This response produces T-cells that attack the virus and stop it from spreading. It also produces memory B-cells that train your immune system to protect you from future attacks.

The new vaccine also uses a live, modified version of a virus. However, it does not rely on the vaccinated body having this traditional immune response or immune active proteins which is the reason it can be used by babies whose immune systems are underdeveloped, or people suffering from a disease that overtaxes their immune system. Instead, this relies on small, silencing RNA molecules.

A host a person, a mouse, anyone infected will produce small interfering RNAs as an immune response to viral infection. These RNAi then knock down the virus, said Shouwei Ding, distinguished professor of microbiology at UCR, and lead paper author.

The reason viruses successfully cause disease is because they produce proteins that block a hosts RNAi response. If we make a mutant virus that cannot produce the protein to suppress our RNAi, we can weaken the virus. It can replicate to some level, but then loses the battle to the host RNAi response, Ding said. A virus weakened in this way can be used as a vaccine for boosting our RNAi immune system.

When the researchers tested this strategy with a mouse virus called Nodamura, they did it with mutant mice lacking T and B cells. With one vaccine injection, they found the mice were protected from a lethal dose of the unmodified virus for at least 90 days. Note that some studies show nine mouse days are roughly equivalent to one human year.

There are few vaccines suitable for use in babies younger than six months old. However, even newborn mice produce small RNAi molecules, which is why the vaccine protected them as well.UC Riversidehas now been issued a US patent on this RNAi vaccine technology.

In 2013, the same research team published a paper showing that flu infections also induce us to produce RNAi molecules. Thats why our next step is to use this same concept to generate a flu vaccine, so infants can be protected. If we are successful, theyll no longer have to depend on their mothers antibodies, Ding said.

Their flu vaccine will also likely be delivered in the form of a spray, as many people have an aversion to needles. Respiratory infections move through the nose, so a spray might be an easier delivery system, Hai said.

Additionally, the researchers say there is little chance of a virus mutating to avoid this vaccination strategy. Viruses may mutate in regions not targeted by traditional vaccines. However, we are targeting their whole genome with thousands of small RNAs. They cannot escape this, Hai said.

Ultimately, the researchers believe they can cut and paste this strategy to make a one-and-done vaccine for any number of viruses.

There are several well-known human pathogens; dengue, SARS, COVID. They all have similar viral functions, Ding said. This should be applicable to these viruses in an easy transfer of knowledge.

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Vaccine breakthrough means no more chasing strains - University of California

Australian Medical Association President Professor Steve Robson said after many years of the Covid pandemic, it would be understandable if many Australians had a sense of vaccine fatigue.

I know it can be tiring keeping up to date with flu shots after receiving several rounds of the Covid vaccine, but it is absolutely the best and easiest way to protect yourself and the ones you love from serious illness, Professor Robson said.

Influenza is no joke, and it can have devastating effects for vulnerable Australians, including the elderly and children.

There really is no time to waste when it comes to getting your flu shot, and I urge as many people as possible to go book your flu shot today.

Professor Robson said the Covid booster vaccine could be administered on the same day as the flu jab.

The best time to defend yourself against Covid is when you get your flu shot. It is perfectly safe and effective to have the two shots administered one after the other in the same appointment, he said.

This week is World Immunisation Week (2430 April), which really is the ideal reminder to go and get your influenza and Covid vaccines. Its fast, its simple and its safe.

Free vaccines are available for people most at risk of complications through the Australian Governments National Immunisation Program.

Professor Paul Kelly, the head of the interim Australian Centre for Disease Control, said the highest notification rates for flu last year were in children under 14 years, and concerningly, the vaccine uptake in this same population group was very low.

Professor Robson urged parents to ensure their kids are protected.

Influenza can be extremely serious and dangerous for children, especially for those under five years of age, so it is crucial they get their flu shots as soon as possible, he said.

The flu is not just a cold, it is an extremely serious virus that can lead to hospitalisation and death but the good news is, there is a very simple form of protection available. Go book your flu shot today.

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Protect yourself and your loved ones with a flu shot and Covid booster today - Australian Medical Association

On the heels of a multi-state outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) in dairy cows, experts told MedPage Today that a trio of H5N1 vaccines for humans has already been developed and approved in the U.S.

While there hasn't been an outbreak among people to put them to the test, human-to-human transmission would "drive the need" for H5N1 vaccines, Aaron Glatt, MD, of Mount Sinai South Nassau in Oceanside, New York and a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, told MedPage Today.

If infections among humans who work with animals become more common, this could be a subgroup of people to vaccinate, he added. So far, only one human case in the U.S. has been reported this year.

Nahid Bhadelia, MD, of the Boston University Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases, noted that it is "important to be talking about vaccines," including the current stockpile, the capacity to manufacture new doses if need be, and the designs of the current vaccines.

A spokesperson for the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) told MedPage Today in an emailed statement that it is monitoring the situation closely, along with partners from the CDC, FDA, Department of Agriculture, and White House.

ASPR's National Pre-Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Stockpile (NPIVS) program "enables rapid response to influenza strains as they evolve," the spokesperson said, adding that the program "works closely with industry partners to make and test updated vaccines that match new strains of influenza viruses with pandemic potential as they emerge, while at the same time, supporting manufacturing capacity to allow for large-scale vaccine production if needed."

NPIVS is "continually generating antigens that are matched to virus strains of interest, and we have two antigens that are well-matched to the currently circulating strain of H5N1," the spokesperson added. "Hundreds of thousands of doses could be deployed within weeks pending regulatory action, and over 100 million doses could be deployed in the coming months."

Vaccine Makers Stand Ready

ASPR's industry partners include CSL Seqirus, GSK, and Sanofi, which have H5N1 vaccines licensed for use in the U.S.

Sanofi developed egg-based A/H5N1 vaccines as early as 2004 and received the first U.S. license for such a vaccine in 2007, a spokesperson for the company told MedPage Today.

"Our egg-based vaccine supply would well contribute to support a global influenza pandemic response should it arise either from A/H5N1 or any other influenza strain," the spokesperson said, adding that in December 2019, Sanofi entered into an agreement with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to "establish sustainable production of a recombinant vaccine for use in the event of a pandemic."

That would allow the company "to leverage the technology used for one of our approved seasonal flu vaccines to deliver a pandemic vaccine," the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for GSK said the company is also monitoring the situation, along with the evolving epidemiology: "We are directly connected with our contractual partners to deliver on our commitments in the event that an influenza pandemic is declared."

However, "GSK is not planning to disrupt seasonal flu production plans while there is no global health emergency," the spokesperson added.

In 2022, the company was awarded multi-year contracts with the U.S., Canada, the European Union, and the WHO to supply its pandemic preparedness vaccine if the WHO declared an influenza pandemic, the spokesperson said. "These contracts will support the ready production and supply of this vaccine, and together could provide at least 200 million doses of pandemic influenza vaccine around the world."

As for what may be currently available for use, the spokesperson said that the company's pandemic vaccine is "developed to be updated with the latest circulating strains, and this follows the process for seasonal flu, where strains are identified by the WHO and vaccines are updated every season."

"The timeline for this depends on several factors, including the licensing processes, which would be determined when a pandemic is declared," the spokesperson noted.

For its part, CSL Seqirus said in a statement that it is able to "make a vaccine in response to government orders for use in a disease outbreak, for people who could be occupationally exposed to sick animals, or full-scale production of pandemic influenza vaccine should a pandemic be declared."

The company's manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, which was built through a public-private partnership with BARDA, "utilizes a highly scalable method of production and is positioned to deliver up to 150 million pandemic influenza vaccine doses to support a pandemic response if needed," the statement said, "in addition to its annual routine seasonal influenza vaccine production."

What Else Is Important?

At this point, stockpiling H5N1 vaccines for a specific clade is "just not practical," Glatt said.

However, if a different situation emerges, the time from when a vaccine may be needed to when a vaccine would be available would likely be shorter than historical cases, given the trio of already approved H5N1 vaccines and their safety data, he noted.

In the meantime, it is important to continue to recognize and address cases in poultry and other animal populations, Glatt added.

Bhadelia also expressed concern regarding the potential for more infections among animals and any significant spread among humans, which would increase the chances for evolution of the virus farther away from the current vaccines.

As for the ongoing development of vaccines, she pointed to potential interest in vaccines that are not egg-based, especially in the event of an outbreak affecting the egg supply, as well as vaccines that are not monovalent, such as universal influenza shots.

It is also crucial to think beyond vaccines alone, she added, especially when it comes to immunocompromised people and other more vulnerable individuals, including ensuring that an H5N1 vaccine strategy is backed up by the availability of antiviral treatments.

Jennifer Henderson joined MedPage Today as an enterprise and investigative writer in Jan. 2021. She has covered the healthcare industry in NYC, life sciences and the business of law, among other areas.

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Is There a Vaccine for H5N1 Influenza? - Medpage Today

Its true that the recent spread of bird flu among dairy cows is an enormous concern, as Jeremy Farrar, the World Health Organizations chief scientist, described it last week. While only two people in the United States have contracted this H5N1 strain of the avian flu (one last year and one this month), wider spread could be catastrophic, given that, in past outbreaks, the disease has killed one of every two people who are infected.

But before anyone panics, lets take a step back and look at the facts. Health officials have a plan in the event avian flu becomes the next pandemic. In fact, as Dawn OConnell, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, told me, the federal government is much better prepared to respond to pandemic influenza than it was for covid-19.

To start, its much easier today to access personal protective equipment such as masks, gowns and goggles through commercial markets than it was before the coronavirus hit. But even if those supply chains are pinched, OConnell said, the Strategic National Stockpile has plenty to provide for farms, health-care systems and other affected entities.

The stockpile also contains the antiviral medication Tamiflu, which works against seasonal flu and is expected to work well against H5N1. Like antivirals for covid, Tamiflu reduces the chance of an influenza infection becoming severe when taken soon after symptoms emerge. Unlike covid treatments, however, Tamiflu can also be given to close contacts of infected individuals to prevent them from falling ill.

OConnell explained there are tens of millions of courses of Tamiflu available in the national stockpile. The federal government has also funded states to build their own stockpiles, which means tens of millions more treatments are available. And this is on top of commercially available Tamiflu, which people can buy at pharmacies with a prescription from their doctors.

Another key preventive measure is vaccines. OConnell, who also oversees vaccine-preparedness efforts, explained that the federal government contracts with three manufacturers that can make avian flu vaccines. Each uses the three platforms approved by the Food and Drug Administration to develop the vaccines: egg-based, cell-based and recombinant. That means if one platform doesnt work, or if one company encounters production problems, there are other options.

Moreover, because quite a few influenza strains have already been identified, the federal government keeps a library of antigens, which are used in vaccines to trigger an immune response to flu viruses. Every year, for the seasonal flu shot, scientists try to predict which strains will be dominant that fall. They then analyze existing antigens, test them against the strains, and select the closest-matching antigens to make that years flu vaccine.

Two antigens in the library appear to match H5N1, OConnell said. The federal government also has adjuvants, the component of vaccines needed to help enhance the bodys immune response to the shot, ready for the bird-flu shot as well.

In fact, the federal government has already developed hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses that are ready to be deployed against the avian H5N1 strain. In addition, they have 10 million doses that need finishing touches, which could be completed within weeks.

If more are needed, there are two options. The first is to make more vaccines using the same technology as seasonal vaccines. OConnell estimates that manufacturers could produce 125 million doses within 130 days. Because the vaccine is a two-dose vaccine, this would only cover a fraction of the U.S. population.

The second option would be to pursue mRNA vaccines, which could be made much faster than the traditional platforms. Even if these vaccines end up not being as effective or as durable as traditional ones, they could be a useful first shot that buys time for additional vaccines to be made.

Of course, there is a third option, which is to scale up vaccine production now. OConnell has a good answer as to why this isnt happening: To make hundreds of millions of doses of avian flu vaccines, manufacturers would have to stop producing seasonal flu shots. This would also takes a lot of extra funding from Congress. Wed have to be sure that we were in a position that it warrants that, she said.

With no evidence of human-to-human transmission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has assessed that the risk to humans is low. Therefore, we have not yet reached the point where ramping up vaccine production is necessary. But if we did, it is reassuring to know that the United States would be in a better place to respond compared with the start of the covid pandemic.

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Opinion | If bird flu shows signs of pandemic spread, the U.S. is well prepared - The Washington Post

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Bird flu, lack of vaccine prompt 'great concern' for top WHO official - USA TODAY

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) last night announced that it has shared 239 recent genetic sequences of the H5N1 avian flu virus from poultry, wild birds, and dairy cows, which will help scientists look for new clues about the spread of the virus.

In related developments over the past 3 days, APHIS reported four more H5N1 detections in dairy herds, along with more positive findings in wild birds and poultry. Also, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) posted a recent update on its actions to look for new human infections.

As the outbreak nears the 1-month mark, it's still not known how the 2.3.4.4b H5N1 clade is now able to infect cows and exactly how it is spreading in dairy herds. With the virus still spreading across multiple world regions, veterinary experts are looking for answers to protect dairy cows and human health.

Some scientists have voiced frustration with the slow pace of sharing genetic sequences and other investigation details. Until yesterday, only a few genetic sequences were available from the recent outbreaks, including those from a few cows and cats that were detailed in a recent preprint paper from a team at Iowa State University.

In its statement, APHIS said it usually publishes sequences on GISAID, the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, but for transparency and to speed research, it shared raw sequence data via the National Institutes of Health National Center for Biotechnology Information. It added that the sequences are from cattle, cats, chickens, skunk, racoon, grackle, blackbird, and goose and that it will continue to make the data available on a rolling basis.

Louise Moncla, PhD, assistant professor of pathobiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, today on X welcomed the posting of the raw genetic sequencing, but said analysis steps such as downloading and mapping will take time, and it will take a while before scientists can show how the viruses are related to each other.

Meanwhile, in updates over the last few days, APHIS reported 4 more H5N1 detections in dairy herds, which raise the total to 32. The latest positive samples were from cows in Kansas, Michigan, and Texas.

Also, APHIS reported two more H5N1 detections in poultry flocks, including an earlier announced outbreak at a commercial turkey farm in Michigan's Newaygo County and a third hatchery in New Mexico's Roosevelt County. The agency also reported about 30 more H5N1 detections in wild birds, including waterfowl, shorebirds, crows, and raptors. Most were from the eastern part of the country.

In other related developments, the CDC on April 19 posted an update in its response, which includes lab studies to better clarify the impact of antiviral drugs and candidate vaccine viruses.

The agency said it just completed susceptibility testing for seasonal flu antivirals. Tests on the H5N1 virus from the recent human case in Texas confirm that it is susceptible to all commercially available neuraminidase inhibitors. "Testing to confirm susceptibility to baloxavir marboxil, a different antiviral medication, takes longer and is ongoing," it said.

Testing to confirm susceptibility to baloxavir marboxil, a different antiviral medication, takes longer.

The CDC said it is studying blood samples from people to have been vaccinated against H5 avian flu to confirm that existing candidate vaccine viruses (CVV) protect against the H5N1 virus isolated from the patient in Texas. Earlier genetic analysis suggested that the CDC's two existing CVVs would protect against the subtype found in the Texas patient.

Among other actions, the CDC said it is designing an epidemiologic field study to better understand the outbreak. So far, its monitoring of emergency department and flu testing data in areas where H5N1 has been found in dairy cattle or other animals shows no unusual trends.

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USDA shares recent H5N1 avian flu sequences amid more dairy herd outbreaks - University of Minnesota Twin Cities

LAWRENCE Anti-vaccine sentiments are not new. But in recent years, attitudes toward vaccines have increasingly become more politicized along partisan lines. Accompanying such hesitancy is escalating distrust of China, which is where the COVID-19 epidemic originated.

A new study titled The politics of flu vaccines: international collaboration and political partisanship examines the influence of international collaboration and vaccine developments on peoples attitudes toward vaccines.

Interestingly, it was the collaboration between the U.S. and China that resulted in our annual flu vaccines, said John James Kennedy, a professor of political science at the University of Kansas.

Despite the previously successful and effective U.S.-China collaboration in developing vaccines, Kennedys study finds that respondents are much less likely to receive a U.S.-China flu vaccine than ones created by a U.S.-Japan collaboration or U.S. alone. It appears in the Japanese Journal of Political Science.

Co-written with KU assistant professor of political science Jack Zhang, KU doctoral student Riago Liu and former KU doctoral students Haruka Nagao and William Hatungimana (currently of the University of Oklahoma), the surveys results further suggest that Republicans are significantly less likely to accept an FDA-approved flu vaccine developed through U.S.-China collaboration than a flu vaccine developed through U.S.-Japan collaboration or the U.S. alone.

Historically, international collaboration has been critical to vaccine development, even with the general public being largely unaware of foreign involvement in the process.

U.S.-China relations with medicine goes back to the 1900s, said Kennedy, who also is chair of KUs political science department.

Theyve been collaborating specifically on vaccines for nearly 20 years. And it was through the World Health Organization (WHO) that theyve been sharing the actual flu viruses -- because you have to share the virus to get a piece of that virus in order to create the vaccine.

Kennedys team set up an experimental design that introduced four scenarios testing for vaccine nationalism, country-specific hypothesis and partisan hypothesis. More than 1,200 respondents were surveyed.

We knew there would be resistance in the U.S. to vaccines from China. We also assumed we would likely see Democrat and Republican differences, in terms of the Republicans being much more anti-China. But the surprise was there was greater support for the Japanese collaboration. In fact, more people would rather take a U.S.-Japan vaccine than one made solely by the U.S., he said.

This surprising result wasnt merely because of the eroding trust in the FDA coming from partisan influences.

Its also because of overall trust in Japanese products, Kennedy said.

Many cars driven in the U.S. are made by Japanese countries: Honda, Subaru, Toyota. Sony is a huge product, both in entertainment and things like headphones. Anime is extremely popular. And US-Japan relations together against China have been also prevalent. I think the trust in Japanese products over time has contributed to a trust in the vaccine.

Kennedy revealed that the impetus for this study was the conflux of seeing news reports about the anti-China legislation in Kansas coupled with advertisements touting the flu vaccine.

I was thinking, Well, I wonder if people would take the flu vaccine if they really knew that China has been engaged with helping create it? Because we asked people in the survey, Did you ever get a flu shot in the last 10 years? Almost everybody said yes which means theyve all been affected by this collaboration. But I thought the difference between knowing and not knowing would make an interesting survey experiment, he said.

A Los Angeles native who has taught at KU since 2003, Kennedy is fluent in Mandarin and conducts research on Chinese local governance. His first book, Lost and Found: The Missing Girls in Rural China, was published by Oxford in 2019.

The politics of vaccines could have a real influence on our public health, Kennedy said.

If people are refusing to take vaccines for political reasons, rather than medical reasons, that is unusual. Distrust in the FDA plays a role in some of that. Pandemics are not going away we were losing 30,000 to 50,000 people a year due to flu-related deaths before the pandemic. So Im hoping the biggest takeaway of this research is that people will be less political when it comes to vaccine choices.

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US-China vaccines collaboration leads to partisan distrust, study finds | KU News - The University of Kansas

Metabolic health (normal blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels, among other factors) influences the effectiveness of influenza vaccinations. Vaccination is known to be less effective in people with obesity compared to those with a healthier body mass index (BMI), but St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have found it is not obesity itself, but instead metabolic dysfunction, which makes the difference. In a study published today in Nature Microbiology, the researchers found switching obese mice to a healthy diet before flu vaccination, but not after, completely protected the models from a lethal dose of flu, despite BMI.

We found that the vaccines worked effectively if at the time of vaccination an animal is metabolically healthy. And the opposite was also true: Regardless of what the mice looked like on the outside, if they had metabolic dysfunction, the vaccines did not work as well."

Stacey Schultz-Cherry, PhD, corresponding author, St. JudeDepartment of Host-Microbe InteractionsandCenter of Excellence for Influenza Research and Responseco-director

Prior research has shown that when exposed to influenza virus, even after vaccination, 100% of obese mice succumbed to disease. Contrary to the scientists' original expectations, when mice who were vaccinated while obese returned to a healthy weight, outcomes did not improve. These now outwardly healthy mice still all succumbed to disease when exposed to the real virus. Only switching to a healthy diet four weeks before vaccination improved survival, with drastic effect, despite high BMI.

"We were excited to see this effect because mice with obesity are so susceptible to severe disease and succumbing to the infection," Schultz-Cherry said. "Getting 100% survival with the vaccine where we had only seen 0% survival was impressive." The improved survival suggests the researchers have discovered a greater underlying principle determining influenza vaccine efficacy.

While studying how metabolic function influences influenza vaccine responses, the scientists found that poor metabolic health causes immune system dysfunction. T cells, the primary immune cells involved in anti-viral responses, failed to act in animals that had been in an unhealthy metabolic state at the time of vaccination, even during later viral exposure. Even when the animals ate a healthy diet after vaccination and maintained a normal BMI, the anti-flu T cells were "frozen" in that dysfunctional state.

However, a healthy diet before vaccination improved T-cell function, which resulted in a robust anti-flu response during later exposure.

"The T cells were better able to do their job in the metabolically healthy mice at the time of vaccination," Schultz-Cherry said. "It wasn't a matter of the numbers of them or the types of them. It was their functional activity. There were plenty of them in the lungs, not working. The healthy diet switched them from not working to functioning properly, but only if the switch occurred before vaccination."

The earlier healthy diet also improved inflammation. Pro-inflammatory cytokines are upregulated in obese animals. Schultz-Cherry's team found that models also returned to a lower basal cytokine level when switched to a healthy diet before vaccination.

"A healthy diet lowered some of the systemic meta-inflammation in these animals, and they regained some of the epithelial innate immune responses," said Schultz-Cherry. "We started seeing better signaling of things like interferons, which we know is problematic in obesity and in general saw the immune system starting to function the way that it should."

"What we found and are emphasizing is that it's not the phenotype of obesity that matters; it's really about metabolic health," Schultz-Cherry said. "It's metabolic health at that moment of vaccination that really makes a difference."

The study was restricted to mice, but it does open research opportunities to improve influenza vaccine efficacy in humans. The findings suggest methods of improving metabolic health may also improve subsequent influenza vaccinations. Given the recent introduction of metabolic improvement drugs, especially glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonists, there may be potential for a cooperative effect.

"We don't know for sure, but if the outcome of using GLP-1 drugs is weight loss and improved metabolic health, we would hypothesize that it will help," Schultz-Cherry said. "But we do know that we can do better protecting our vulnerable populations, and this study is a start for understanding how."

The study's co-first authors are Rebekah Honce, formerly of St. Jude, and Ana Vazquez-Pagan, formerly of the St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

The study's other authors are R. Chris Skinner, University of Vermont, Brandi Livingston, Alexandra Mandarano, Benjamin Wilander, Sean Cherry, Virginia Hargest, Bridgett Sharp, Pamela Brigleb, Ericka Kirkpatrick Roubidoux, Lee-Ann Van de Velde, Maureen McGargill and Paul Thomas, St. Jude.

The study was supported by grants and contracts from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (HHSN27220140006C, 75N93019C00052, 75N93021C00016, F31AI161986, R01 AI140766-03 and 32AI106700-07) and ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization of St. Jude.

Source:

Journal reference:

Honce, R., et al. (2024). Diet switch pre-vaccination improves immune response and metabolic status in formerly obese mice.Nature Microbiology. doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01677-y.

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Metabolic health determines effectiveness of influenza vaccination - News-Medical.Net