Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine provides early protective antibody responses in children after related and unrelated allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
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.
Meisel
Roland
R
Clinic for Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Immunology, University Children's Hospital, Heinrich Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany. meisel@med.uni-duesseldorf.de
Kuypers
Lisa
L
Dirksen
Uta
U
Schubert
Ralf
R
Gruhn
Bernd
B
Strauss
Gabriele
G
Beutel
Karin
K
Groll
Andreas H
AH
Duffner
Ulrich
U
Blütters-Sawatzki
Renate
R
Holter
Wolfgang
W
Feuchtinger
Tobias
T
Grüttner
Hans-Peter
HP
Schroten
Horst
H
Zielen
Stefan
S
Ohmann
Christian
C
Laws
Hans-Jürgen
HJ
Dilloo
Dagmar
D
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
D022242:Pneumococcal Vaccines