Medizinische Universität Graz - Research portal
Selected Publication:
Ncube, NA.
Meta-analysis of the half-life of pertussisspecific maternal antibodies in infants induced
by vaccination during pregnancy.
[ Diplomarbeit/Master Thesis (UNI) ] University of Antwerp; 2023.
FullText
- Authors Med Uni Graz:
- Advisor:
- Herzog Sereina Annik
- Altmetrics:
- Abstract:
- Introduction: Pertussis (whooping cough) is a highly contagious vaccine-preventable infectious disease of the respiratory tract with the highest incidence in severe disease and mortality occurs in infants that are less than six months old and too young to be vaccinated. Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent pertussis. Maternal immunisation during pregnancy offers effective early protection to infants through the transplacental transport of vaccine-induced maternal antibodies. Infant vaccinations against pertussis are administered from the age of 6 weeks resulting in susceptibility gap for pertussis infection in infants. We aim to determine the half-life of pertussis-specific antibodies in neonates after pertussis vaccination during pregnancy. Methods: A two-step individual-participant data (IPD) meta-analysis of four parent prospective cohort studies that investigated the effect of pertussis vaccination during pregnancy on immune responses to pertussis containing vaccines in infants in Belgium, Thailand, and Vietnam. Analysis accounted for potential confounding maternal and infant factors. In stage 1, the half-life of passively acquired maternal antibodies in infants were estimated for each study and each pertussis IgG-specific antibody using linear mixed-effect (LME) models with log2 transformed estimate of antibodies concentrations. We pooled the half-life estimates obtained in stage 1 using a random-effects meta-analysis. Results: Baseline pooled anti-PT antibodies half-life of 32.2 days (95%CI 17.9-46.5) was lower compared to the half-life of anti-FHA of 41.8 days (95%CI 15.6-68.0) and 43.7 days (95%CI 30.6-56.8) for anti-PRN of antibodies. The pooled half-life pertussis-specific estimates after adjusting for maternal and infant covariates were similar to the baseline pooled half-life estimates. Pooled half-life estimates with MATAB6 only including term cohorts reported higher half-life estimates compared to baseline half-life estimates. Conclusion: Our study showed that maternal vaccination offered protection against pertussis where by age 2 months infants, a quarter of maternal antibodes would still be present. However, a clear correlate of protection against pertussis would better guide pertussis primary vaccination timing in infants than our study results.