Deep immune cell phenotyping predicts influenza vaccine immunogenicity in HCT recipients

Pre-vaccination immune-cell composition in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant recipients predicts influenza vaccine antibody immunogenicity, cutting prediction error by 15.3% using 30-marker mass cytometry.

• Why it matters: Antibody responses after HCT vary widely, and baseline titers and clinical factors alone do not fully explain who will mount strong responses.
• What they did: In 260 participants from two multicenter phase 2 trials (pediatric and adult) and 74 held-out second-season episodes, 30-marker mass cytometry quantified blood immune-cell composition and models predicted mean antibody log fold-rise across 3 antigens.
• The result: Adding immune-cell composition to baseline titers reduced mean squared prediction error by 15.3% (P < .001), and adding it beyond titers plus clinical factors reduced error by 12.5% (P = .001); low composition scores identified unlikely responders and improved held-out prediction error by 39%.

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