It is known that obese people are less effective when vaccinated compared to people with a healthy weight. Among these, research results have shown that it is not obesity itself that makes this difference, but metabolic health.
Researchers found that changing the diet of obese mice to a healthier one before receiving the flu vaccine increased the protective effect against exposure to the flu virus, regardless of body mass index. However, there is still a long way to go to assume that these results can be equally applied to humans.
Researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the U.S. targeted 20 obese mice and fed half of them a low-fat diet before vaccination, while the other half continued to eat a high-fat diet. When all the mice were exposed to the flu about a month later, the mice fed a low-fat diet before vaccination showed a better immune response than those fed a high-fat diet or those who later changed their diet and lost weight.
Contrary to the researchers’ initial expectations, the results did not improve when mice vaccinated while obese later gained a healthy weight. Survival rates increased significantly only when people switched to a healthy diet four weeks before vaccination.
In this process, researchers discovered that immune function declines when metabolic health is poor. T cells, immune cells involved in antiviral responses, did not function properly even when mice that were in poor metabolic health at the time of vaccination were later exposed to the virus. Additionally, even if people ate a healthy diet and gained normal weight after vaccination, T cell function did not improve. However, the T cell function of mice fed a healthy diet before vaccination improved and showed a strong anti-flu effect when exposed to the flu virus.
The researchers said, “At the time of vaccination, T cells from mice that were metabolically healthy were able to perform their role better,” and “cells that were not functioning properly began to function properly through a healthy diet, but this only occurred when conversion occurred before vaccination. “It was possible,” he explained. He added, “It was not the obesity phenotype (various characteristics that appear on the outside of a living organism) that was important, but metabolic health, and what actually made a difference was metabolic health at the time of vaccination.”
However, the researchers said that there is still a long way to go before assuming that these results will apply equally to humans. “Ultimately, this study could be the beginning of understanding how to better protect obese people,” he said. “It is not certain, but it would be helpful if the results of using GLP-1 drugs were weight loss and improved metabolic health.” “We can formulate hypotheses,” he explained.
The results of this study were published in the journal Nature Microbiology under the title ‘Diet switch pre-vaccination improves immune response and metabolic status in formerly obese mice’.
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