The team of scientists studied the activity of activated B cells after influenza vaccination, after influenza infection, and during Ebola virus infection. Why Ebola? “Ebola virus infection represents a situation when the patients’ bodies were encountering something they’ve never seen before,” said lead author Ali Ellebedy, PhD. “In contrast, during both influenza vaccination and infection, the immune system generally is relying on recall.”
One week after study participants were immunized for influenza, both flu-specific plasmablasts and flu-specific activated B cells were detected in their blood. However, two weeks after the immunization, the plasmablasts had completely disappeared from the blood, while the activated B cell cells were still proliferating.
Months after the immunization, activated B cells had completed the transition into resting memory B cells, giving scientists the full picture of how memory cells are produced.
Additionally, they saw a similar trend in Ebola patients with a progressing infection: as the plasmablast count decreased in the blood, the activated B cell count increased.
With more insight into how antibody-producing cells diminish over time, researchers might make some changes to the way vaccines are created.
“It is still worthwhile to encourage the immune system to make a greater quantity of antibodies, even if their quality does not rise appreciably, and the value of vaccination may be greater when the flu vaccine strains are not identical to those used in previous seasons’ vaccines,” Ellebedy said.
Source: Emory Health Sciences
Image: Blood Journal