Cellular and humoral immune responses to measles in immune adults re-immunized with measles vaccine

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http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/104524371/START

Online ISSN: 1096-9071    Print ISSN: 0146-6615
Journal of Medical Virology
Volume 70, Issue 2, 2003. Pages: 276-280

Published Online: 9 Apr 2003
 

Copyright © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Cellular and humoral immune responses to measles in immune adults re-immunized with measles vaccine
Rosa Maria Wong-Chew 1 *, Judy A. Beeler 3, Susette Audet 3, José Ignacio Santos 1 2
1Departamento de Medicina Experimental, Facultad de Medicina, Laboratorio de Infectologia, Microbiologia e Immunologia Clinicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, DF
2Centro Nacional para la Salud de la Infancia y la Adolescencia, Consejo Nacional de Vacunación, Secretaría de Salud, México, DF
3Division of Viral Products, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Bethesda, Maryland
 
email: Rosa Maria Wong-Chew (rmwong@correo.unam.mx)

*Correspondence to Rosa Maria Wong-Chew, Departamento de Medicina Experimental, Facultad de Medicina, UNAM, Hospital General de México, Dr. Balmis #148, Colonia Doctores 06726, México, DF.

 

Keywords
cellular immunity • humoral immunity • measles vaccine • booster

 

Abstract
The objective of this study was to characterize the kinetics of the cellular and humoral immune responses elicited by measles vaccine given to previously immune adults. The cellular and humoral immune responses to measles were measured in seven healthy adults, before vaccination and at 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks and 3 months after vaccination, using measles-specific T-cell proliferation and plaque reduction neutralization assays. All study subjects had detectable measles antibodies, but only six (85%) showed protective titers, defined as >1:120, before immunization. However measles-specific T-cell proliferation was not detectable before vaccination in any of the subjects. The six subjects with protective titers showed a positive stimulation index (SI) of >3.0 within the first 4 weeks after vaccination, an SI of 5 at the 4th week, and an SI of 3 at 3 months after vaccination. The subject with a low antibody titer (1:99) before vaccination developed a high SI at 3 months after vaccination. This subject was the only participant whose neutralizing antibody titers increased more than 4-fold by 3 months after vaccination. No significant increases in geometric mean titers were detected in the other six subjects during the follow-up period. These data suggest that high measles antibody titers interfere with the humoral response in subjects who receive a booster immunization, whereas the cellular response is boosted at least transiently, after revaccination. J. Med. Virol. 70: 276-280, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Accepted: 7 November 2002

Copyright © 1999-2003 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
 

 

 

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