Comparative Analysis of Titers of Antibody against Measles Virus in Sera of Vaccinated and Naturally Infected Japanese Individuals of Different Age Groups

Abstract

The anti-measles virus (MV) antibody titers in the sera of vaccinees and naturally infected individuals of different age groups were measured to help assess the efficacy of the current MV vaccination in Japan. Neutralizing (NT) antibody titers induced by vaccination were 2 3.2 times lower than those induced by natural infection and declined significantly by age 20. The once-decreased NT antibody titers of the vaccinees increased 2 3.6 times during their twenties to titers comparable to those of naturally infected individuals of the same age, implying the possible occurrence of natural infection in vaccinees with decreased anti-MV immunity. Although the current field strains in Japan, types D3 and D5, were reported to differ antigenically from each other and from vaccine strains (type A) to some extent, as demonstrated by different reactivities to monoclonal antibodies, the sera of vaccinees neutralized the two types of field strains and the vaccine strain with the same efficiency. This result suggests that the current vaccine strain would be suitable to elicit protection against types D3 and D5, as long as viral antigenicity is concerned. However, when compared at given hemagglutination inhibition titers, NT antibody titers of vaccinees were 2 1.1 to 2 3.2 times lower than those of naturally infected individuals, suggesting a qualitative difference(s) of anti-MV antibodies between the two groups. It should be emphasized that protective immunity induced by the one-dose vaccination currently implemented in Japan may not be strong enough to ensure lifelong immunity. A two-dose vaccination program with higher vaccination coverage needs to be considered in order to effectively control measles in Japan.

How advances in immunology provide insight into improving vaccine efficacy

“…Although representing only anecdotal evidence, when we examined the plateau phase of long-term antibody responses to measles, mumps, or rubella in a small cohort of vaccinated subjects ([11]; Supplemental Appendix), the antibody responses appeared to be as durable as that observed following natural infection with these viruses. However, similar to previous studies on measles [68] and mumps [69], the set point level of the plateau was lower following vaccination than after natural infection, and resided nearer to the putative threshold required for protective immunity. In other words, following vaccination or infection, detectable antigen-specific immunity may be long-lived, but if it is not maintained above the protective threshold then protective immunity itself may not be long-lived.…”

Depletion of measles virus glycoprotein-specific antibodies from human sera reveals genotype-specific neutralizing antibodies

“…In the present study, we used sera collected from naturally immune instead of vaccinated subjects. As expected, MV glycoprotein-specific IgG levels and MV Edmonston-specific VN antibody levels were, on average, higher than those in vaccinated subjects measured in the previous study (van den Hof et al, 1999;Itoh et al, 2002). The contribution of F-specific antibodies to virus neutralization was mainly observed in the sera with relatively high titres, suggesting that this observation was mainly due to the overall higher specific antibody levels in the naturally immune subjects.…”

“…Depletion of both H-and Fspecific antibodies in all cases resulted in complete elimination of detectable VN activity, demonstrating the technical feasibility of this approach. Depletion of Fspecific antibodies resulted in only a minor reduction in VN activity, whilst depletion of H-specific antibodies in the majority of the samples completely eliminated VN activity, although in a minor percentage a low VN titre remained (de Swart et al, 2005).MV-specific antibody levels induced by natural infection are higher than those induced by vaccination (van den Hof et al, 1999;Itoh et al, 2002). Primary and secondary vaccination failures have been associated with susceptibility et al, 1987;Fine & Zell, 1994;De Serres et al, 1995;Sutcliffe & Rea, 1996;Paunio et al, 2000), whereas naturally immune subjects only rarely become susceptible to subclinical MV reinfection (Muller et al, 1996).…”

“…MV-specific antibody levels induced by natural infection are higher than those induced by vaccination (van den Hof et al, 1999;Itoh et al, 2002). Primary and secondary vaccination failures have been associated with susceptibility et al, 1987;Fine & Zell, 1994;De Serres et al, 1995;Sutcliffe & Rea, 1996;Paunio et al, 2000), whereas naturally immune subjects only rarely become susceptible to subclinical MV reinfection (Muller et al, 1996).…”

Full‐Length Sequence Analysis of Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis (SSPE) Virus, a Mutant of Measles Virus, Isolated from Brain Tissues of a Patient Shortly after Onset of SSPE

“…A marmoset B-lymphoblastoid cell line B95a was maintained in RPMI1640 supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum, as described previously (19,22,23,40). Vero/SLAM cells (33) were a kind gift from Dr. Y. Yanagi, Department of Virology, Kyushu University Graduate School of Medicine, Fukuoka, Japan, and were maintained in Dulbecco's modification of Eagle's minimum essential medium supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum and G418 (400 µg/ml).…”