The leader of a project to build a world-first, detailed picture of how immune cells change with age is hoping to develop a more effective vaccine for older people.<\/p>\n
The project is a collaboration between New Zealand’s Malaghan Institute and Scotland’s University of Dundee.<\/p>\n
The institute’s chief scientist, Michelle Linterman, who is leading the project, told RNZ that vaccination is one of the most powerful tools for preventing disease, but age-related changes in how immune cells make and manage their proteins mean vaccines work less well as people get older, leaving them more vulnerable.<\/p>\n
“So what happens in all of the cells of your body is that, to function, they produce protein, but those proteins need to be regulated.<\/p>\n
“It’s kind of like a housekeeper keeping your house in order that, you know, if something gets broken, it gets disposed of, and what we know is that as we get older, the housekeeper becomes less effective and things get a little bit messier with respect to your proteins, and we think that this is one of the reasons that the immune cells don’t function as well in ageing.”<\/p>\n