An immune stress test for resilience to aging: Pneumococcal vaccine response

The idea that the degree of response to physical stress in early life can be used to measure health in later life is a novel approach to better define resilience to aging. To investigate this, middle-age (15 months) mice were stressed by vaccination with a commercial pneumococcal vaccine (Prevnar 13), and 30 days later separated into a high antibody response group and a low antibody response group using Elisa to detect IgG serum antibody levels. After 4 months, mice were evaluated for physiological performance and learning ability. The high antibody response group was able to stay on a rotating rod longer than the low antibody response group and were more quickly able to find the escape hole in a spatial navigation learning task. This observation suggests Prevnar 13 antibody response in midlife could be a useful stress test to predict healthy aging.