REVIEW

Immunological memory as a basis for a wise vaccination strategy. A rationale for introducing a comprehensive seroepidemiological surveillance system in Russia

About authors

1 Laboratory of Translational Biomedicine,
N. F. Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow, Russia

2 Department of Virology, Faculty of Biology,
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow

3 Institute of Molecular Medicine,
I. M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia

4 Department of Epidemiology,
N. F. Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow, Russia

5 N. F. Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow

Correspondence should be addressed: Vladimir A. Gushchin
ul. Gamalei, d. 18, Moscow, Russia, 123098; moc.liamg@adainawow

About paper

Funding: this paper was prepared with support of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, project no. RFMEFI60117X0018.

All authors' contribution to this work is equal: selection and analysis of literature, planning of the manuscript's structure, data interpretation, drafting of the manuscript, editing.

Received: 2017-09-24 Accepted: 2017-10-10 Published online: 2017-12-11
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Immunological memory is one of the key features of the adaptive immunity. It confers the ability to resist infection and prevents development of cancer or autoimmune diseases. Most importantly, immunological memory mediated by preexisting antigen- specific clones of T- and B-cells ensures a rapid and effective response to an invasion by a previously encountered pathogen. Since vaccination induces a specific long-lived response to infectious agents, it becomes a basis for preventive medicine. In a human population, immunological memory of individuals shapes the so-called herd or community immunity crucial for national health. The present review touches upon significant population-wide research studies of immunological memory with regard to immunization. We discuss the principles of serological testing and the outcomes of serological monitoring conducted in different countries, and talk about standard and innovative analytical approaches to studying immunological memory. We also pinpoint the drawbacks of methods used for herd immunity assessment in Russia and propose a comprehensive system for seroepidemiological surveillance.

Keywords: humoral immunity, immunological memory, herd immunity, infectious agent, pathogen, vaccine, immunization, immunization schedule, vaccine hesistancy, surveillance

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