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Cellular and humoral immune responses to measles in immune adults re‐immunized with measles vaccine
Author(s) -
WongChew Rosa Maria,
Beeler Judy A.,
Audet Susette,
Santos José Ignacio
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/jmv.10390
Subject(s) - vaccination , measles , immunology , immune system , immunization , measles vaccine , medicine , titer , antibody , virology , humoral immunity , antibody titer , morbillivirus , immunity , measles virus
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.