A small jab – a big effect: nonspecific immunomodulation by vaccines

Benn, Christine Stabell; Netea, Mihai G.; Selin, Liisa K.; Aaby, Péter

doi:10.1016/j.it.2013.04.004

Cited by 452 publications

(371 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…1 In contrast, the killed vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) has been associated with detrimental effects such as increased mortality to infections unrelated to the vaccine. These results are very reminiscent of the findings in the studies of immune responses during heterologous infections described earlier in the paper.…”

Section: Epidemiological Evidence Of Heterologous Immunity During Chimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also, the pediatric hospital mortality was increased when DTP was administered after measles vaccine compared to measles vaccine alone. 1 This suggests that the order of immunization is important, since application of BCG or measles vaccine reduced the negative effect of DTP vaccine 88 .…”

Section: Dtp Vaccinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although BCG has been shown to have a beneficial effect against VACV infection in mouse models, killed vaccines such as DTP have yet to be studied in mouse models of heterologous immunity. However, based on the large body of accumulating evidence of heterologous crossreactive T cell immunity and innate heterologous immunity, 1 it is likely these mechanisms are playing a role in the human vaccine non-specific effects.…”

Section: Dtp Vaccinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Innate heterologous immunity has been previously reviewed elsewhere. 1 The concept of memory T cells being crossreactive with new pathogens suggests that with each new infection we would educate the immune system increasing our library of memory responses with an ability to respond not only to the original infecting antigens, but potentially to many others we have not yet experienced. These crossreactive memory responses can potentially enhance and alter innate responses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vaccination and heterologous immunity: educating the immune system

Gil¹,

Kenney²,

Mishra³

et al. 2015

Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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This review discusses three inter-related topics: (1) the immaturity of the neonatal and infant immune response; (2) heterologous immunity, where prior infection history with unrelated pathogens alters disease outcome resulting in either enhanced protective immunity or increased immunopathology to new infections, and (3) epidemiological human vaccine studies that demonstrate vaccines can have beneficial or detrimental effects on subsequent unrelated infections. The results from the epidemiological and heterologous immunity studies suggest that the immune system has tremendous plasticity and that each new infection or vaccine that an individual is exposed to during a lifetime will potentially alter the dynamics of their immune system. It also suggests that each new infection or vaccine that an infant receives is not only perturbing the immune system but is educating the immune system and laying down the foundation for all subsequent responses. This leads to the question, is there an optimum way to educate the immune system? Should this be taken into consideration in our vaccination protocols?

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Section: Epidemiological Evidence Of Heterologous Immunity During Chimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Dtp Vaccinementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Dtp Vaccinementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Vaccination and heterologous immunity: educating the immune system

Gil¹,

Kenney²,

Mishra³

et al. 2015

Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Self Cite

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“…The existence of such effects poses a challenge to the assumption that individual vaccines affect the immune system independently of each other and have no physiological effect other than protection against the targeted pathogen [21]. The nonspecific effects of some vaccines appear to be beneficial, while in others they appear to increase morbidity and mortality [22,23]. For instance, both the measles and Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine reportedly reduce overall morbidity and mortality [24], whereas the diphtheria-tetanuspertussis [25] and hepatitis B vaccines [26] have the opposite effect.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pilot comparative study on the health of vaccinated and unvaccinated 6- to 12- year old U.S. children

Mawson¹,

Ray²,

Bhuiyan³

et al. 2017

J Transl Sci

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Vaccinations have prevented millions of infectious illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths among U.S. children, yet the long-term health outcomes of the vaccination schedule remain uncertain. Studies have been recommended by the U.S. Institute of Medicine to address this question. This study aimed 1) to compare vaccinated and unvaccinated children on a broad range of health outcomes, and 2) to determine whether an association found between vaccination and neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD), if any, remained significant after adjustment for other measured factors. A cross-sectional study of mothers of children educated at home was carried out in collaboration with homeschool organizations in four U.S. states: Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oregon. Mothers were asked to complete an anonymous online questionnaire on their 6-to 12-year-old biological children with respect to pregnancy-related factors, birth history, vaccinations, physician-diagnosed illnesses, medications used, and health services. NDD, a derived diagnostic measure, was defined as having one or more of the following three closely-related diagnoses: a learning disability, Attention Deficient Hyperactivity Disorder, and Autism Spectrum Disorder. A convenience sample of 666 children was obtained, of which 261 (39%) were unvaccinated. The vaccinated were less likely than the unvaccinated to have been diagnosed with chickenpox and pertussis, but more likely to have been diagnosed with pneumonia, otitis media, allergies and NDD. After adjustment, vaccination, male gender, and preterm birth remained significantly associated with NDD. However, in a final adjusted model with interaction, vaccination but not preterm birth remained associated with NDD, while the interaction of preterm birth and vaccination was associated with a 6.6-fold increased odds of NDD (95% CI: 2.8, 15.5). In conclusion, vaccinated homeschool children were found to have a higher rate of allergies and NDD than unvaccinated homeschool children. While vaccination remained significantly associated with NDD after controlling for other factors, preterm birth coupled with vaccination was associated with an apparent synergistic increase in the odds of NDD. Further research involving larger, independent samples and stronger research designs is needed to verify and understand these unexpected findings in order to optimize the impact of vaccines on children's health.

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