Influenza poses a heavy burden to our health service. Seasonal, zoonotic and pandemic influenza are constant global threats. The WHO estimates that seasonal influenza causes 250,000-500,000 deaths worldwide each year, with an even higher mortality during the pandemic periods. Moreover zoonotic influenza such as the avian-origin H5N1 and more recently the H7N9 influenza are associated with a much higher mortality than seasonal influenza. Vaccine immunogenicity among elderly individuals is also suboptimal due to immunosenescence. Various strategies including intradermal vaccination and new vaccine adjuvants have been shown to improve immunogenicity.~Recently, imiquimod, a synthetic Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) agonist useful for the treatment of DNA virus infection, have been shown to improve vaccine immunogenicity against influenza virus in both mouse model. The objective of this prospective double-blind randomized controlled trial is to evaluate the effect and safety of topical treatment with imiquimod immediately before intradermal influenza vaccination. Our a priori hypothesis is that imiquimod pretreatment would expedite and augment the immunogenicity of influenza vaccination.
Influenza poses a heavy burden to our health service. The WHO estimates that seasonal influenza causes 250,000-500,000 deaths worldwide each year. Various strategies including intradermal vaccination and new vaccine adjuvants have been shown to improve immunogenicity. Recently, imiquimod, a synthetic Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) agonist useful for the treatment of DNA virus infection, have been shown to improve vaccine immunogenicity against influenza virus in mouse model. The objective of this prospective double-blind randomized controlled trial is to evaluate the effect and safety of topical treatment with imiquimod immediately before intradermal influenza vaccination in healthy young adults.