Volume 138, Issue 1, March 2014

Editor’s Highlight: Vaccines and their possible adverse effects have received a great deal of popular attention, often based on sketchy science. In this issue of ToxSci, Luster and colleagues provide an example of how quality toxicological research can reveal connections between vaccines, immune function, and environmental exposures. The authors examined a human population that was exposed to perfluorooctanoate (PFOS) and how they responded to vaccines for influenza viruses. The results showed that individuals with high levels of PFOS had weaker antibody responses. Even though an increase in self-reported infections was not observed in this study, the fact that such inadvertent exposures can blunt one of the most important public health interventions demands further attention. Elderly and infirm populations often receive higher doses of vaccines to generate a more robust antibody response. The reported findings suggest that individuals exposed to certain environmental contaminants may also require higher doses of vaccines, or at least titer checks to confirm appropriate vaccine response. –Gary W. Miller