Safety and immunogenicity of three doses of an eleven-valent diphtheria toxoid and tetanus protein – conjugated pneumococcal vaccine in Filipino infants

BACKGROUND: An 11-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine could provide significantly larger reduction in pneumococcal disease burden than the currently available 7-valent vaccine formulation in many countries. METHODS: In total, 50 infants were enrolled to this open, uncontrolled study, which evaluated the safety and immunogenicity of an aluminium adjuvanted 11-valent mixed-carrier diphtheria toxoid or tetanus protein-conjugated vaccine (11-PncTD) when administered in three doses at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age simultaneously with DTwP//PRP-T and OPV vaccines in Filipino infants. RESULTS: The rates of local reactions between the two injection sites, those associated with the 11-PncTD vaccine and those with the DTwP//PRP-T were almost of equal frequency for all three vaccine doses except for induration, which was significantly more common in the DTP//PRP-T injection site. Fever was present in 39%, 22% and 21% of infants following each of the three doses. Antibody responses were determined by an enzyme immunoassay method before the first vaccination and after the three doses. The vaccine elicited a significant anti-pneumococcal polysaccharide antibody response against all serotypes included in the vaccine, except for type 14, for which the pre-vaccination geometric mean antibody concentration (GMC) was high (1.61 μg/ml). The GMCs one month after the vaccination series ranged from 1.1 micrograms/ml for type 6B to 23.4 μg/ml for type 4. CONCLUSION: The 11-PncTD vaccine is safe, well-tolerated and immunogenic. The effectiveness of the non-adjuvanted formulation of the vaccine in preventing pneumonia is currently being evaluated in the Philippines

Alternate Splicing of Interleukin-1 Receptor Type II (IL1R2) In Vitro Correlates with Clinical Glucocorticoid Responsiveness in Patients with AIED

Autoimmune Inner Ear Disease (AIED) is poorly characterized clinically, with no definitive laboratory test. All patients suspected of having AIED are given glucocorticoids during periods of acute hearing loss, however, only half initially respond, and still fewer respond over time

Age-Related Immunity to Meningococcal Serogroup C Vaccination: An Increase in the Persistence of IgG2 Correlates with a Decrease in the Avidity of IgG

Contains fulltext : 97618.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Background All children and adolescents between 1 and 19 years of age in The Netherlands received a single meningococcal serogroup C conjugate (MenCC) vaccine in 2002. During follow-up 4–5 years later, the persistence of MenC polysaccharide-specific IgG was found to be dependent on age of vaccination with higher IgG levels in the oldest immunized age categories. Methods and Findings Two cross-sectional population-based serum banks, collected in 1995/1996 and in 2006/2007, were used for this study. We measured MenC polysaccharide-specific IgM, the IgG1 and IgG2 subclasses and determined the avidity of the IgG antibodies. We report that the age-related persistence of IgG after immunization with the MenCC vaccine seemed to result from an increase of IgG2 levels with age, while IgG1 levels remained stable throughout the different age-cohorts. Furthermore, an age-related increase in IgM levels was observed, correlating with the persistence of IgG antibodies with age. It is noteworthy that the increase in IgG2 correlated with a reduced IgG-avidity with age. Conclusion These date indicate that the classical characteristics of a T-cell-dependent antibody response as elicited by protein based vaccines might not be completely applicable when conjugate vaccines are administered to older children and adolescents up to 18 years of age. The response elicited by the MenCC vaccine seemed to be more a mixture of both T cell dependent and T cell independent responses in terms of humoral immunological characteristics