Stanford-Led Study Develops Blood Test to Predict Vaccine Immunity Duration

Why do some vaccines provide lifelong immunity while others fade within months? A new Stanford Medicine-led study sheds light on this mystery, linking vaccine durability to an unexpected player: megakaryocytes, blood cells best known for their role in clotting.

Vaccines like the second dose of measles-mumps-rubella provide protection that often lasts a lifetime. In contrast, the effectiveness of flu vaccines can wane within months. The study, published in Nature Immunology, identifies a molecular signature in the blood, detectable just days after vaccination, that predicts how long immunity will last.

“This has been one of the great mysteries of vaccine science,” says senior author Bali Pulendran, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford. “Our findings reveal a key mechanism behind vaccine durability and offer a predictive tool for understanding immune responses.”

Previously, Pulendran’s 2022 research defined a "universal signature" that could predict the early antibody response to many vaccines. However, it did not clarify how long those responses would endure. This new study builds on that work, advancing our understanding of the fundamental biology behind long-term immunity.

Joint first authors Mario Cortese, PhD, and Thomas Hagan, PhD, along with key contributor Nadine Rouphael, MD, emphasize the broad implications of these findings. Cortese now works at Gilead Sciences, while Hagan is an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Rouphael is a professor at Emory University specializing in vaccinology and infectious diseases.

This research could revolutionize vaccine development, ensuring longer-lasting immunity for future generations.

SORCE: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/01/test-immunity-last.html 

CREDITS: STANFORD MEDICINE