Scientists discover why older people face greater flu risk - and it’s not just old age

Flu vaccines for those aged 65 or over are set to roll out for this flu season next month, with the jabs being offered to this group based on the understanding that older people are at a greater risk of serious illness if they catch the viral infection.

According to the National Institute on Aging within America’s National Institutes of Health, the flu is dangerous for older people because of a weaker immune system due to aging, and the increased likelihood that they will have other conditions such as diabetes which means they’re more likely to suffer complications.

But now, scientists from British and Chinese institutions – including the University of Nottingham, the University of Edinburgh and Beijing’s China Agricultural University – say they’ve discovered precisely why older people are more at risk when it comes to influenza.

Co-author Professor Kin-Chow Chang, of the University of Nottingham, said: “Aging is a leading risk factor in influenza-related deaths. Furthermore, the global population is aging at an unprecedented rate in human history, posing major issues for healthcare and the economy.

“So we need to find out why older patients often suffer more severely from influenza virus infection.”

Their study, published in PNAS, saw the experts discover that older people produce a glycosylated protein – that is, per BioPharmaSpec, the “attachment of carbohydrates to the backbone of a protein through an enzymatic reaction” – known as apoplipoprotein D (or ApoD for short) at higher levels than young people.

ApoD is associated with lipid metabolism and inflammation, and when production in the lung increases with age, it “drives extensive tissue damage during infection” which reduces the body’s antiviral response and its ability to resist infection.

The academics’ discovery has led to them concluding that ApoD is “a target for therapeutic intervention to protect against severe influenza virus infection in the elderly”, something which could have a “major impact” on reducing the aging population’s morbidity and mortality.

Professor Chang, added: “There is now an exciting opportunity to therapeutically ameliorate disease severity of the elderly from influenza virus infection by the inhibitory targeting of ApoD.”

It’s not the first time that a study has provided some explanation around why certain people are more at risk of getting a serious bout of the flu, as back in May 2023, a paper published in Nature Immunology found a reason why men ‘get sicker’ from the flu than women.

Why not read…

• This is the last place you want to sit on a plane during flu season – according to expert
• Here's why we need to ban the term 'man flu'

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