Immune signature atlas of vaccines: learning from the good responders

Abstract

Understanding immune determinants of vaccine-mediated immunogenicity could further provide rational vaccine design. Two research groups revealed pre-existing and early innate immune signatures associated with better vaccine-mediated antibody responses.

Fig. 1 ∣. Pre-existing and early immune responses associated with vaccine-mediated antibody responsiveness.

Transcriptional profiling from whole blood or peripheral blood mononuclear cells from adults 18–55 years (yrs) of age was obtained by microarray or RNA-sequencing assays before vaccination and on days 1, 3 and 7 after vaccination. Pie charts at left indicate an estimated proportion of samples obtained from different vaccine types, pathogens and demographics. Enriched blood transcriptional modules (BTMs) from individuals with high pre-vaccination pre-inflammatory innate responses (Inflam.hi) were obtained through unsupervised clustering analysis. BTMs differentially expressed at the post-vaccination relative to the pre-vaccination time point (shared across four or more vaccines) were obtained by unsupervised clustering (for all time points) and by supervised analysis in a subset of participants with high and low antibody responses to influenza vaccines (day 7 post vaccination). Venn diagrams indicate the number of differentially expressed BTMs (in red) at each time point. Antibody titers were determined as maximum fold change on day 28 (±2 days) relative to the pre-vaccination timepoint. Gray arrows indicate whether BTMs are upregulated or downregulated. E2F1, E2 transcription factor; IFN, interferon; IL, interleukin; ISG, interferon-stimulated genes; PLK1, polo-like kinase 1; PS, polysaccharide; VZV, varicella-zoster virus; YF, yellow fever.