Natural history of pertussis antibody in the infant and effect on vaccine response

Abstract

To better characterize the transplacental transfer and persistence of pertussis antibodies and their role in the immune response to vaccine, concentrations of pertussis agglutinins and anti-bodies to lymphocytosispromoting factor (LPF) and filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) weremea-sured in three distinct groups of serum. Transplacental pertussis IgG antibody concentrations in newborns were found to be comparable to corresponding maternal concentrations and to de-cline with a half-life of ""6 weeks. By the age of 4 months, most infants had no detectable.anti-bodies to LPF or FHA. Higher concentrations of maternally derived antibody to LPF were associated with a significantly weaker antibody response to conventional vaccine. In contrast, acellular vaccine stimulated superior antibody production, regardless of antecedent concentra-tions of antibody to LPF. The data support continuation of the current schedule of pertussis immunization and further efforts to develop an acellular vaccine for use in young infants. Investigators have recently characterized many of the anti-genic and biologically active components of Bordetella per-tussis. The two components most extensively studied are the proteins lymphocytosis promoting factor (LPF) (also calle