Developmental Projects

DP003 Murali-Krishna

Aged individuals generally exhibit decreased vaccine responses and increased morbidity or mortality in response to infections. This is accompanied by a delay and a decrease in T-cell response, particularly of CD8(+) T cells.  The reduced responses may be related to multiple factors. One of them seem to be related to age associated changes in inflammatory mediators, affecting lymphocyte function. The inflammatory cytokines are attractive targets for improving vaccine and supplemental strategies because of the possibility of manipulating them.  The goal of this project, thus, is to characterize critical inflammatory mediators playing a role in ageˆmediated defect in immunity; using viral infections in small animal models. These studies will open novel avenues for an understanding of how to manipulate these factors, which will revolutionize vaccine/ supplemental strategies.