EFFECTS OF AGING ON VACCINE EFFICACY IN NONHUMAN PRIMATE MODELS

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中利用 资源由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目和 调查员(PI)可能从NIH的另一个来源获得了主要资金， 并因此可以在其他清晰的条目中表示。列出的机构是 该中心不一定是调查人员的机构。 人类发动有效免疫反应的能力随着年龄的增长而下降，这使得老年人容易感染传染病和癌症。此外，在年轻人身上测试的疫苗对老年人往往无效。因此，随着新疫苗的开发，测试这些配方对老年人和年轻人的有效性将是极其重要的。虽然年轻的非人灵长类动物在测试普通人类群体的疫苗效力方面起到了关键作用，但使用老年非人灵长类动物来评估老年人疫苗保护的模型尚未建立。我们已经开始解决这个问题，在最近的一项研究中，令我们惊讶的是，在生物医学研究中广泛使用的一种非人类灵长类物种狒狒并没有随着年龄的增长而表现出免疫衰老。事实上，当老年狒狒(19-24岁)用LcrV免疫时，它们的反应甚至比年轻动物(2岁)更好。LcrV是一种针对鼠疫细菌的保护性抗原。因此，尽管在人类、啮齿动物和一些非人类灵长类物种中观察到了与年龄相关的免疫功能丧失，但狒狒似乎是不寻常的；它们在衰老时不会失去免疫能力。因此，我们建议评估衰老对三种非人类灵长类动物(狒狒、猕猴和绒猴)对多种不同抗原免疫的影响。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The ability of humans to mount an effective immune response declines with age, leaving the elderly susceptible to infectious diseases and cancer. Moreover, vaccines tested in younger individuals are often ineffective in older people. Thus, as new vaccines are developed, it will be extremely important to test these formulations for efficacy in the elderly as well as in the young. While young nonhuman primates have been critical in testing vaccine efficacy for the general human population, a model using old nonhuman primates to assess vaccine protection for the elderly has not been established. We have begun to address this issue and in a recent study, found to our surprise that baboons, a nonhuman primate species used extensively in biomedical research, did not show immune senescence with aging. In fact, when old baboons (19-24 years old) were immunized with LcrV, a protective antigen from the plague bacterium, they responded even better than young animals (2¿ years old). Thus, although age-related loss in immune function has been observed in humans, rodents and a few nonhuman primate species, baboons appear to be unusual; they age without losing immune competence. Therefore, we propose to assess the effects of aging on immunity in three nonhuman primate species (baboons, rhesus macaques, and marmosets) to multiple different antigens.