Immunity

Most recently, Researchers are describing the beneficial role of selenium supplementation post-vaccination.

Supplementing selenium to inhibit ferroptosis, will prove beneficial for the survival of follicular helper T cells, boosting the germinal center and antibody response after vaccination in mice and people.

Vaccination is known to generate a long-lived humoral immunity by inducing the germinal center (GC) response, which is an intricate immune reaction that produces memory B cells and antibody-secreting plasma cells which further protect against (re)infection. 

The GC depends on follicular helper T (TFH) cells, thus employing the potential of TFH cells will help improve the immunogenicity of vaccines. 

Researchers have reported the death of TFH cells by ferroptosis, which is an iron-dependent form of cell death, featuring the accumulation of lipid reactive oxygen species. After inhibiting ferroptosis, genetically and via oral selenium supplementation, the researchers demonstrated a boost in TFH cell numbers, the GC response and antibody titers after vaccination in mice as well as in humans. 

Thus this provides confident evidence that targeting TFH cells will boost antibody responses after vaccination to support enduring humoral immunity.

Linterman MA, Denton AE. Selenium saves ferroptotic TFH cells to fortify the germinal center. Nat Immunol, 2021; 22:1074–1076.