There
has been debate and concerns regarding the annual flu vaccine here in USA, and people have
been debating to get one or not get one.
Scientifically however, the case is in its favor. It has emerged out that vaccination created memory immune cells not only protect us from the pathogen against which vaccine was made, but also from other pathogens.
Scientists
from Stanford University California have found that the T cells, a kind of immune cells, derived from
healthy individuals recognized the HIV virus and responded to it as if
they had seen the viral antigen before. This kind of response is expected from vaccinated or pre-infected individuals, but it is important to note that the
blood donors in this study were neither vaccinated with HIV vaccine nor were ever infected, and they had tested negative for HIV.
T
cells are a kind of white blood cells that carry CD4 antigens on them, and
participate in launching immune response against a foreign pathogenic, viral or bacterial, proteins. The
T cells, also called memory cells, are made when a bacterial or viral protein
is present in the body either due to vaccination or some kind of infection.
In
the people infected from HIV virus, the T-cells lose the capacity to launch an immune attack, and infetced person develops the condition called Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome or AIDS. Such patients are thus likely to get other infections rather
easily due to weakened immunity.
On the contrary when
the scientists tested the umbilical cord blood from the new born, who had never
‘seen’ a foreign protein, they found no signs of any memory T cells. It
explains why infants and younger children are more prone to catch infections,
thus need vaccination.
The
scientist also found that T cells from flu vaccinated people were able to
recognize the antigens from other bacterial species other than from flu. They
believe that this is possible by cross-reactivity to varied antigens and it may be a major
mechanism in making populations of memory T cells for infectious diseases
that an individual has not yet developed.
This
study thus proposes to explain how vaccination against one disease may protect
from other diseases as well. The study also signifies the influence of
pathogen-rich versus hygienic environments in developing immunity to new
pathogens that may impact child and adult health.
