Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2021 Jan 8;11:601170. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.601170

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

Copyright © 2021 Fathi, Addo and Dahlke

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

PMC Copyright notice

Sex-specific immune responses can lead to vaccine responses that differ in safety, immunogenicity or efficacy. To evaluate the impact of sex on the specific vaccine candidate, we need to include both sexes as early as during the preclinical development stage and aim for a balanced sex ratio in clinical phase 1-3 trials. A detailed snapshot of immune responses to the vaccine can be achieved by frequent blood sampling following vaccination (1) and the application of various technologies (2). Here, we can evaluate responses to the vaccine on the transcriptome, epigenome and proteome level. Using bioinformatic tools (3), we may gain a comprehensive insight into multiple levels of immune responses that may be different in men and women (4). By comprehensively studying innate and adaptive immune responses in men and women, we may better understand how genetic or hormonal differences affect the number and functionality of immune cells.