Modeling the impact of high-dose versus standard-dose influenza vaccines on strength and breadth of the antibody response

Introduction

• Influenza vaccines are good, but could be better.
• The vaccine is especially sub-par in older adults.
• Enhanced vaccines are now recommended for older adults.
• One enhancement is to use a higher dose of antigen: Fluzone High-Dose (HD) versus Fluzone Standard-Dose (SD).

Motivation

• Fluzone HD is more immunogenic compared to Fluzone SD for the strains contained in the vaccine.
• Unclear if Fluzone HD also induces a broader antibody response against other/heterologous strains.

Motivation

• We explored the impact of dose on antibody breadth (and strength) using data from a vaccine cohort.

SD versus HD vaccine study

All individuals >=65y

Billings et al 2025 JID

Vaccine Strains

“Raw” data - homologous responses