As the U.S. population ages and the number of patients receiving immunosuppressive therapies continues to grow, infectious diseases clinicians are increasingly caring for older and immunocompromised hosts whose vulnerability to infection is shaped by complex biological and therapeutic factors.
The session “Old Parts, New Starts: Transplantation in the Golden Years,” Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 1:30 p.m. ET, will explore how immune senescence, novel immunosuppressive agents and evolving vaccine science influence infection risk in transplant recipients and other high‑risk groups.
The session will be moderated by Joanna M. Schaenman, MD, PhD, a transplant infectious diseases specialist and professor in the Department of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and Sarah Taimur, MD, associate professor of medicine and transplant infectious diseases at Mount Sinai in New York City.
With rapidly advancing therapeutics and limited data available to guide infection prevention in older or immunocompromised patients, important gaps remain. Anoma Nellore, MD, associate professor of infectious diseases at NYU Langone Health, noted that industry‑funded studies typically enroll healthy volunteers, leaving “knowledge gaps for a very at‑risk patient population.” She emphasized that the field must better understand “what is impaired that puts [these patients] at risk and what is impaired about their immune response that restricts vaccine protection.”
Dr. Nellore will focus her presentation on how natural aging and therapeutic immunosuppression converge to heighten susceptibility to pathogens, including persistent and emerging threats such as E. coli, measles and Ebola virus.
Albert Shaw, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, will review emerging data on vaccines in aging and immunosuppressed patients, including recent findings on the zoster vaccine and dementia risk. Dr. Nellore said Dr. Shaw’s discussion of “how a vaccine can tune an aging immune system” will help clinicians translate immunologic principles into practical vaccination strategies.
Also during the session, speaker Maricar F. Malinis, MD, associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt Health, will discuss frailty metrics and the emerging understanding that age may not be as accurate a way to assess infection risk.
The session also aligns with the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s new Immunocompromised Host Community of Practice, reflecting a growing need for coordinated guidance in this rapidly evolving area.