Correlates of susceptibility in household influenza studies 

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Presentation Time: 02:15 PM - 03:30 PM
Poster Board Number: B588
Abstract ID: 7930

Presenting Author:
Deryn G. St. James , Graduate Student at St. Jude Children’s Res. Hosp., Univ. of Tennessee Hlth. Sci.Ctr.

Abstract:

Every year there is an estimated one billion cases of seasonal influenza, with varying disease severity. While some have asymptomatic infections, others are hospitalized which can result in fatal disease. It is still unclear why only some will develop symptomatic or severe illness. Household studies allow us to investigate infection status after a known exposure to influenza.  The Nicaragua Household study, and the Household Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness (HIVE) study have been formed to further understand of protection and severity. To this end, we characterized distinct cellular profiles in our subjects with diverse infection outcomes. Acute infection sampling in the Nicaragua study identified high frequencies of basophils, gamma delta T cells, and interferon gamma producing natural killer (NK) cells in subjects with mild disease, whereas granzyme B producing NK cell populations were correlated with severe disease. In the HIVE study, pre-infection samples with higher cytotoxic and cytokine producing NK cells as well as high neutrophil cell populations were correlated with protection from influenza infection and severe disease. Further analysis is in progress to train and test models to predict susceptibility to influenza and disease severity. These analyses expand the diversity of subjects analyzed for immune features in influenza disease to identify more universal correlates of susceptibility.