TY - JOUR
T1 - Protection against Pertussis in Humans Correlates to Elevated Serum Antibodies and Memory B Cells
AU - Pertussis Study Group
AU - Marcellini, Valentina
AU - Piano Mortari, Eva
AU - Fedele, Giorgio
AU - Gesualdo, Francesco
AU - Pandolfi, Elisabetta
AU - Midulla, Fabio
AU - Leone, Pasqualina
AU - Stefanelli, Paola
AU - Tozzi, Alberto Eugenio
AU - Carsetti, Rita
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Pertussis is a respiratory infection caused by Bordetella pertussis that may be particularly severe and even lethal in the first months of life when infants are still too young to be vaccinated. Adults and adolescents experience mild symptoms and are the source of infection for neonates. Adoptive maternal immunity does not prevent pertussis in the neonate. We compared the specific immune response of mothers of neonates diagnosed with pertussis and mothers of control children. We show that women have pre-existing pertussis-specific antibodies and memory B cells and react against the infection with a recall response increasing the levels specific serum IgG, milk IgA, and the frequency of memory B cells of all isotypes. Thus, the maternal immune system is activated in response to pertussis and effectively prevents the disease indicating that the low levels of pre-formed serum antibodies are insufficient for protection. For this reason, memory B cells play a major role in the adult defense. The results of this study suggest that new strategies for vaccine design should aim at increasing long-lived plasma cells and their antibodies.
AB - Pertussis is a respiratory infection caused by Bordetella pertussis that may be particularly severe and even lethal in the first months of life when infants are still too young to be vaccinated. Adults and adolescents experience mild symptoms and are the source of infection for neonates. Adoptive maternal immunity does not prevent pertussis in the neonate. We compared the specific immune response of mothers of neonates diagnosed with pertussis and mothers of control children. We show that women have pre-existing pertussis-specific antibodies and memory B cells and react against the infection with a recall response increasing the levels specific serum IgG, milk IgA, and the frequency of memory B cells of all isotypes. Thus, the maternal immune system is activated in response to pertussis and effectively prevents the disease indicating that the low levels of pre-formed serum antibodies are insufficient for protection. For this reason, memory B cells play a major role in the adult defense. The results of this study suggest that new strategies for vaccine design should aim at increasing long-lived plasma cells and their antibodies.
U2 - 10.3389/fimmu.2017.01158
DO - 10.3389/fimmu.2017.01158
M3 - Article
C2 - 28966622
VL - 8
SP - 1158
JO - Frontiers in Immunology
JF - Frontiers in Immunology
SN - 1664-3224
ER -