title: Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine provides early protective antibody responses in children after related and unrelated allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
abstract: Following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT), children are at risk of life-threatening pneumococcal infections. Whereas vaccination with polysaccharide vaccines fails to elicit protective immunity in most alloHSC transplant recipients, pneumococcal conjugate vaccines may effectively prevent invasive disease by eliciting T-cell-dependent antibody responses. Here, we report safety and immunogenicity in 53 children immunized with a regimen of 3 consecutive doses of a heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (7vPCV) in monthly intervals starting 6 to 9 months after alloHSCT. Immunization was well tolerated with no vaccine-related serious adverse events. Serologic response rates evaluable in 43 patients ranged from 41.9% to 86.0% and 58.1% to 93.0% after 2 and 3 vaccinations, respectively, with 55.8% and 74.4% of patients achieving protective antibody levels to all 7 vaccine serotypes. Our study provides the first evidence that vaccination with 7vPCV is safe and elicits protective antipneumococcal antibody responses in pediatric recipients of related or unrelated donor alloHSC transplants within the first year following transplantation. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00169728.
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Immunology, University Children's Hospital, Heinrich Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany. meisel@med.uni-duesseldorf.de
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Meisel
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kuypers
authors.forename: Uta
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Dirksen
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schubert
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gruhn
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Strauss
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Beutel
authors.forename: Andreas H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Groll
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Duffner
authors.forename: Renate
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Blütters-Sawatzki
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Holter
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Feuchtinger
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Grüttner
authors.forename: Horst
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schroten
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zielen
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ohmann
authors.forename: Hans-Jürgen
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Laws
authors.forename: Dagmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dilloo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000917:Antibody Formation / Q000276:immunology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011008:Pneumococcal Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D022242:Pneumococcal Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology*; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000276:immunology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
chemical_list: D022242:Pneumococcal Vaccines