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Safety and immunogenicity of adjuvanted recombinant subunit herpes zoster vaccine in lung transplant recipients
Author(s) -
Hirzel Cedric,
L'Huillier Arnaud G.,
Ferreira Victor H.,
Marinelli Tina,
Ku Terrance,
Ierullo Matthew,
Miao Congrong,
Schmid D. Scott,
Juvet Stephen,
Humar Atul,
Kumar Deepali
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
american journal of transplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.89
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1600-6143
pISSN - 1600-6135
DOI - 10.1111/ajt.16534
Subject(s) - medicine , interquartile range , immunogenicity , vaccination , population , adverse effect , gastroenterology , immunology , antibody , environmental health
Lung transplant recipients are at high risk for herpes zoster and preventive measures are a significant unmet need. We investigated the safety and immunogenicity of two doses of a recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV) in lung transplant recipients (≥50 years). We enrolled 50 patients of which 49 received at least one vaccine dose. Anti‐glycoprotein E (gE) antibody levels (n = 43) increased significantly compared to baseline (median optical density [OD] 1.96; interquartile range [IQR]: 1.17–2.89) after the first (median OD 3.41, IQR 2.54–3.81, p < .0001) and second vaccine dose (median OD 3.63, IQR 3.39–3.86, p < .0001). gE‐specific polyfunctional CD4+ T cell frequencies (n = 38) also increased from baseline (median 85 per 10 6 CD4+ T cells; IQR: 46–180) to the first (median 128 per 10 6 CD4+ T cells; IQR: 82–353; p = .023) and after the second dose (median 361 per 10 6 CD4+ T cells; IQR: 146–848; p < .0001). Tenderness (83.0%; 95%CI: 69.2–92.4%) and redness (31.9%; 95%CI: 19.1–47.1%) at injection site were common. One rejection episode within 3 weeks of vaccination was observed. This is the first study demonstrating that RZV was safe and elicited significant humoral and cell‐mediated immunity in lung transplant recipients. RZV is a new option for the prevention of shingles in this population.