Blood test can predict how long vaccine immunity will last, study shows

Medical Xpress January 2, 2025
Stanford University Medical Center

When children receive their second measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, around the time they start kindergarten, they gain protection against all three viruses for all or most of their lives. Yet the effectiveness of an influenza vaccine given in October starts to wane by the following spring.

Scientists have long been stymied by why some vaccines can coax the body to produce antibodies for decades, while others last mere months. Now, a study led by researchers at Stanford Medicine has shown that variation in vaccine durability can, in part, be pinned on a surprising type of blood cell called megakaryocytes, typically implicated in blood clotting.