Physical frailty's impact on hemagglutination inhibition antibody titers (HAI) and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) transcriptional responses after influenza vaccination is unclear. Physical frailty was assessed using the 5-item Fried frailty phenotype in 168 community- and assisted-living adults ≥55 years of age during an observational study. Blood was drawn before, 3, 7, and 28 days post-vaccination with the 2017-2018 inactivated influenza vaccine. HAI response to the A/H1N1 strain was measured at Days 0 and 28 using seropositivity, seroconversion, log2 HAI titers, and fold-rise in log2 HAI titers. RNA sequencing of PBMCs from Days 0, 3 and 7 was measured in 28 participants and compared using pathway analyses. Frailty was not significantly associated with any HAI outcome in multivariable models. Compared with non-frail participants, frail participants expressed decreased cell proliferation, metabolism, antibody production, and interferon signaling genes. Conversely, frail participants showed elevated gene expression in IL-8 signaling, T-cell exhaustion, and oxidative stress pathways compared with non-frail participants. These results suggest that reduced effectiveness of influenza vaccine among older, frail individuals may be attributed to immunosenescence-related changes in PBMCs that are not reflected in antibody levels.
Keywords: antibody titers; frailty; immune response; influenza; peripheral cell mediated immunity.