ArticleImmunity & ageing : I & A2023
The effect of metformin on influenza vaccine responses in nondiabetic older adults: a pilot trial.
Article in Immunity & ageing : I & A, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Medication count, including statin or metformin use, is not associated with influenza vaccine responses in older adults.Vaccine · 2025Trial
- Targeting T follicular helper cells for lifelong health.Nature reviews. Drug discovery · 2026Review
- Immune aging biomarkers for clinical trials.Nature medicine · 2026Review
- Targeting Immune Dysregulation After Burn Injury for Improved Healing and Outcomes.Biomolecules · 2026Review
- The effect of metformin treatment during primary influenza infection on heterologous challenge in young and aged mice.Frontiers in aging · 2026Article
- Understanding and improving vaccine efficacy in older adults.Nature aging · 2025Review
- Immunological biomarkers of aging.Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · 2025Review
- Severe SARS-CoV-2 infection in diabetes was rescued in mice supplemented with metformin and/or αKG, and patients taking metformin, via HIF1α-IFN axis.Clinical and translational medicine · 2025Article
- Review
- Review
- Naturally acquired antibodies against 4 Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes in Pakistani adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus.PloS one · 2024Article
- Fundamental and frontier research of immune responses to influenza vaccines in human aging: from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies to clinical trials and the geroscience perspective.Immunity & ageing : I & A · 2023Article
- A pilot metabolomic study of drug interaction with the immune response to seasonal influenza vaccination.NPJ vaccines · 2023Article
- Old drug, new tricks: the utility of metformin in infection and vaccination responses to influenza and SARS-CoV-2 in older adults.Frontiers in aging · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAging is associated with progressive declines in immune responses leading to increased risk of severe infection and diminished vaccination responses. Influenza (flu) is a leading killer of older adults despite availability of seasonal vaccines. Geroscience-guided interventions targeting biological aging could offer transformational approaches to reverse broad declines in immune responses with aging. Here, we evaluated effects of metformin, an FDA approved diabetes drug and candidate anti-aging drug, on flu vaccination responses and markers of immunological resilience in a pilot and feasibility double-blinded placebo-controlled study.
resultsHealthy older adults (non-diabetic/non-prediabetic, age: 74.4 ± 1.7 years) were randomized to metformin (n = 8, 1500 mg extended release/daily) or placebo (n = 7) treatment for 20 weeks and were vaccinated with high-dose flu vaccine after 10 weeks of treatment. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), serum, and plasma were collected prior to treatment, immediately prior to vaccination, and 1, 5, and 10 weeks post vaccination. Increased serum antibody titers were observed post vaccination with no significant differences between groups. Metformin treatment led to trending increases in circulating T follicular helper cells post-vaccination. Furthermore, 20 weeks of metformin treatment reduced expression of exhaustion marker CD57 in circulating CD4 T cells.
conclusionsPre-vaccination metformin treatment improved some components of flu vaccine responses and reduced some markers of T cell exhaustion without serious adverse events in nondiabetic older adults. Thus, our findings highlight the potential utility of metformin to improve flu vaccine responses and reduce age-related immune exhaustion in older adults, providing improved immunological resilience in nondiabetic older adults.
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