Antibiotics may impair effectiveness of Flu vaccines - A study in ice revels.

Contributed by: Dr. Akilesh R & Dr. Tamhankar

A new study suggests antibiotics may hinder the effectiveness of flu vaccines!

Via Creative Common

“Our results suggest that the gut microbiome may be exerting a powerful effect on immunity to vaccination in humans, even immunity induced by a vaccine that is given at a distant site,” says Pulendran, Charles Howard Candler professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and Yerkes National Primate Research Center.

In an earlier study involving humans, it was found that expression of the gene encoding TLR5 was correlated to increased antibody response weeks later. TLR5 encodes a protein that enables immune cells to sense flagellin, the main structural protein for the whips (flagella) many bacteria use to propel themselves.

Antibiotics may remove most of the gut bacteria which in turn may affect expression of genes encoding TLR5. In the current study on mice, they found that mice lacking TLR5 had diminished response to flu vaccine.