Possible Immunosuppressive Effects of Drug Exposure and Environmental and Nutritional Effects on Infection and Vaccination

Abstract EN

A variety of drugs which are not primarily considered to be immunosuppressive agents have beendescribed to modulate the humoral and cellular immune response in humans or animals.

Therebythey may have an influence on the effectiveness and possible side effects of vaccines.

This mini review lists some of the different substance classes and also some of endogeneous, infectious,nutritional, and environmental influences with suspected capability to interfere with immunizations.

Studies in most cases focused on substances with known immunosuppressive functions, but there isgrowing evidence for immunomodulatory effects also of commonly used drugs with widedistribution.

In particular combinations of those antiproliferative and antiphlogistic side effects ofdifferent substance classes have not been studied in detail but may substantially interfere with thedevelopment of a functional humoral and cellular immune response.

The drugs of importanceinclude antipyretics, anticoagulants, tranquilizers, and substances influencing lipid metabolism butalso commonly used drugs of abuse like alcohol or cannabinoids.

Additional substances of environmental, nutritional, or microbiological origin may also play a role but theircombinatory/synergistic effects have been disregarded so far due to the lack of systematic data andthe complex study designs necessary to elucidate those complex epidemiologic questions.