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Twiv Episode 1303

1:50:31 recording · AUTO · 4 speakers

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Brief overview

Two vaccine papers suggest shingles vaccination slows biological aging and mucosal TLR vaccines broadly protect mice.

  1. Shingles vaccination tracks with slower biological agingIn the 3,884-person cohort, vaccinated adults showed lower inflammation, epigenetic and transcriptomic aging scores after adjustment.
  2. An intranasal TLR vaccine protected mice broadlyGLA plus 3M-052 with ovalbumin reduced viral and bacterial loads with no pathogen antigen in the vaccine.
  3. T cells train the alveolar macrophagesDepleting T cells or blocking RANKL removed the macrophage activation and the protection entirely.
Executive Summary AI
  • This Week in Virology episode 1303, recorded on March 6, 2026, has Vincent Racaniello hosting Alan Dove, Brianne Barker and Rich Condit, with weather, a Rosenfeld Lab job notice and Alan's report on Tony Hunter's Janssen Award and an 86-year-old Harold Varmus.0:10
  • The first paper, by Jung Ki Kim and Eileen Crimmins at the University of Southern California in the Journal of Gerontology, used 3,884 Health and Retirement Study adults of mean age about 78, roughly half of them shingles-vaccinated, with blood taken in the 2016 Venous Blood Study.22:47
  • After adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic and health covariates, vaccination was tied to more favorable inflammation, epigenetic and transcriptomic aging and a lower composite aging score, while the adaptive immunity score rose, which in their scoring means poorer function, and the effects persisted beyond four years.27:54
  • The main paper, first author Haibo Zhang and senior author Bali Pulendran in Science, gave mice four intranasal doses of the TLR4 agonist GLA plus the TLR7-8 agonist 3M-052 with ovalbumin, and the mice lost less weight and carried less virus when challenged at 21 days, 42 days and three months with SARS-CoV-2, and were also protected against SARS-CoV, SHC014, Staph aureus and Acinetobacter baumann57:29
  • Depleting CD4 and CD8 T cells lowered CD86 and MHC on alveolar macrophages and abolished protection, as did blocking RANKL, pointing to a feed-forward circuit in which T cells talk back to the macrophages; Brianne, Rich and Alan closed with picks on vaccine hesitancy, the London bus study and the book Waste Wars.1:15:36
Key Quote
“He is exactly as sharp, maybe even a little sharper than he was on TWIV 400.”
— Alan Dove7:28
Key Quote
“The vaccine seems to slow aging.”
— Vincent Racaniello31:42
Key Quote
“But what this seems to imply is that the T cell is going to talk back to the macrophage.”
— Brianne Barker1:14:31