Immune surveillance for vaccine-preventable diseases

Abstract

Introduction: Immunesurveillance is an important tool to monitor the protection of the population against vaccine-preventable diseases, which is currently mostly based on the detection of specific serum antibodies. However, the landscape of immune surveillance is changing, driven by emerging and evolving pathogens, changes in the age distribution of the population and scientific understanding of protective immunity, necessitating a comprehensive review. Areas covered: To anticipate these changes, reliable and high-throughput detection of antibody levels is desired to enable screening in larger population settings. Antibody levels alone do not always equate with protection and may require additional functional testing of the antibodies or immune cell-based assays. In addition, the location (systemic or locally mucosal) of the infection and whether the antibodies are induced through infection or vaccination have implications for both immune protection and assessing immune status. Expert commentary: In order to perform multicenter studies on many samples for multiple antigens, more validated reference materials and wider adoption of high-throughput techniques are needed. The field of serosurveillance will also benefit from better correlates of protection and understanding of (local) mechanisms of protection. Here we give an overview of the current state-of-the-art of serosurveillance and how the field could move forward. ARTICLE HISTORY

SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody detection for sero-epidemiology: a multiplex analysis approach accounting for accurate seroprevalence

“…Furthermore, implementation of international reference materials as being distributed by e.g. NIBSC to facilitate comparison of seroepidemiological data between studies and countries is greatly recommended [1, 23].…”

“…COVID-19 caused by the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 resulted in a pandemic in a largely immune-naïve population. The presence of specific antibodies is currently being investigated to assess the induction of an immune response in patients, whilst also to assess the degree of exposure and immunity in the general population [1-3]. As it is a recently emerged coronavirus variant, the kinetics and degree of immunity induced following contact with the virus and COVID-19 disease are largely unknown.…”

“…Our laboratory has extensive experience in developing multiplex assays to quantify antibodies to many bacterial and viral pathogens in the general population, of which most are part of the national immunization program [1, 14-17]. We developed a high throughput and highly quantitative and specific bead-based multiplex immunoassay to assess the prevalence of sero-positivity in the general population, anticipating the introduction of future SARS-CoV-2 vaccines as well.…”

SARS-CoV-2–Specific Antibody Detection for Seroepidemiology: A Multiplex Analysis Approach Accounting for Accurate Seroprevalence

“…Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the newly emerged severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has resulted in a pandemic in a largely immune-naive population. The presence of specific antibodies is currently being investigated to assess the induction of an immune response in patients and to assess the degree of exposure and immunity in the general population [ 1–3 ]. As it is a recently emerged coronavirus variant, the kinetics and degree of immunity induced following contact with the virus and COVID-19 disease are largely unknown.…”

“…Our laboratory has extensive experience in developing multiplex assays to quantify antibodies to many bacterial and viral pathogens in the general population, of which most are part of the national immunization program [ 1 , 14–17 ]. We developed a high-throughput and highly quantitative bead-based multiplex immunoassay to assess the prevalence of seropositivity in the general population, and also anticipating the introduction of future SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.…”