Influenza-induced production of interferon-alpha is defective in geriatric individuals.

Background: The majority of deaths (90%) attributed to influenza are in person's age 65 or older. Little is known about whether defects in innate immune responses in geriatric individuals contribute to their susceptibility to influenza.

Objective: Our aim was to analyze interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) production in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) isolated from young and geriatric adult donors, stimulated with influenza A or Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands.