Antibody landscapes after influenza virus infection or vaccination

TLDR

The authors introduce the antibody landscape, a quantitative framework that maps antibody-mediated immunity across antigenically diverse pathogen strains. They constructed antibody landscapes from longitudinal data on 69 individuals over six years of infection and from 225 individuals before and after vaccination, spanning 43 years of H3N2 evolution. Infection and vaccination broadened antibody titers to include distant strains, and using an antigenically advanced vaccine induced antibodies against both new and older clusters, suggesting that preemptive vaccine updates could enhance efficacy in previously exposed individuals.

Abstract

We introduce the antibody landscape, a method for the quantitative analysis of antibody-mediated immunity to antigenically variable pathogens, achieved by accounting for antigenic variation among pathogen strains. We generated antibody landscapes to study immune profiles covering 43 years of influenza A/H3N2 virus evolution for 69 individuals monitored for infection over 6 years and for 225 individuals pre- and postvaccination. Upon infection and vaccination, titers increased broadly, including previously encountered viruses far beyond the extent of cross-reactivity observed after a primary infection. We explored implications for vaccination and found that the use of an antigenically advanced virus had the dual benefit of inducing antibodies against both advanced and previous antigenic clusters. These results indicate that preemptive vaccine updates may improve influenza vaccine efficacy in previously exposed individuals.