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WEBINAR: IMMUNE RESPONSE TO VACCINATION

On the 20 th of June another edition of the sequence “School for vaccines” was held that is in partnership with UNICEF Bulgaria. “Immune response to vaccination” was the topic of the webinar whose lecturer was associate professor PhD Snezhina Mihaylova.

Associate professor Mihaylova is an immunologist of long-term practice who has 10-year experience with clinical examinations and over 20 years of clinical experience in diagnostics, treatment and monitoring of patients with diseases that result from immune system irregularities. 

In the beginning, the expert paid attention to the fact that the vaccination principles are based on two key elements of secondary immunity. This is specificity and memory. “Vaccine immunogenicity is its property to stimulate immune system in a manner that causes secondary immune response that in turn would bring about prevention of infection in the future”. This was explained by associate professor Mihaylova and she added that there are several methods for quantification of vaccine response namely:

-humoral response; 
-cellular response;
-inbuilt response;
-cytokine response;
-cellular response.

During the webinar, the specialist underlined that there are significant differences between individuals when it comes to immune response to vaccination from qualitative and quantitative aspect. Thus for example antibody response to vaccination against yellow fever varies >10-fold among individuals. Towards the 7- and 13-valent conjugated pneumococcal (PVC7 and PVC13) and Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) there is also difference – they vary up to 40-fold.. 

These variations in the vaccine responses bring about consequences such as protection efficiency as well as protection duration. 

Mihaylova outlined the main factors that impact immune response to vaccination:

-endogenous factors: sex, age, genes, comorbidity;
-perinatal factors: gestational age, birth weight, breastfeeding, maternal antibodies, maternal infection etc. 
-exogenous factors: infections, parasites, antibiotics, pro- and pre-biotics; immune status;

-behavioural factors: tobacco addiction, alcohol, physical load, acute psychological stress, chronic psychological stress, sleep;

-nutrient factors: dietary status, micronutrients, vitamins, minerals, enteropathy, BMI;

-environmental factors: urbanization, geographic location, seasons;

-factors inherent to the vaccine: type, product, strain, adjuvant, dose;

-manner of administration: vaccination scheme, place, manner, needle size, time of administration, combination, taken medications;

In the end, the specialist presented the benefits inherent to the intake of probiotics. “Favourable effect of probiotics was reported in around half the research works – mainly for peroral vaccinations and for the parenteral vaccine against flu.” Mihaylova reminded us that probiotics are a cost effective intervention for improving vaccine efficiency and protection duration.

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