What Is Wrong with Pertussis Vaccine Immunity?
Inducing and Recalling Vaccine-Specific Immunity
- 1Center for Vaccinology and Neonatal Immunology, Department of Pediatrics and Pathology-Immunology, Medical Faculty and University Hospitals of Geneva, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
- 2Division of Neonatology and Pediatric Intensive Care, Children’s Hospital of Geneva, University Hospitals of Geneva and Faculty of Medicine, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
- 3Division of General Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Geneva, University Hospitals of Geneva and Faculty of Medicine, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
- Correspondence: claire-anne.siegrist{at}unige.ch
Abstract
The high incidence of pertussis in vaccinated adolescents suggests the failing of immune memory. We argue that acellular pertussis vaccines generate memory cells that are effectively reactivated by boosters better than by Bordetella pertussis exposure. We propose that there are two main causes. One is the induction of vaccine-specific immunity rather than pathogen-specific immunity. The second is that strictly mucosal infections such as B. pertussis poorly reactivate memory B and T cells residing deep in lymph nodes or tissues. Developing new vaccines for infants or adolescents will be immunologically and economically challenging. Let us hope that maternal and infant immunization, to date the most effective strategies against pertussis death, will remain so.
