The research identifies immune correlates, predictive of protection against rotavirus gastroenteritis (RGE), suggesting a link between vaccine immunogenicity and efficacy.
A link between immunogenicity and efficacy is a very important parameter for all vaccines facilitating further product development and use.
Until now, serum IgA has been considered the best measure predicting the efficacy of the RotaTeq oral rotavirus vaccine (RV5), but a clear correlation of protection has not been identified.
This new research reveals a higher level of neutralising antibodies against the most common RV strain (G1) is a better predictor of protection, which correlates more closely with vaccine efficacy.
RGE is the leading cause of severe diarrhoeal disease in young children worldwide, killing over 200,000 children under 5 globally every year.
With the RV5 vaccine already acknowledged by WHO as a safe and effective RV vaccine, this research has implications for clinical use around the world.
However, further studies are needed to validate the research findings and to identify the threshold that defines protection from RV disease or death.
For a copy of the full study published by Taylor & Francis, please contact newsroom@taylorandfrancis.com
References
- G. Frank Liu, et al., "Postdose 3 G1 serum neutralizing antibody as correlate of protection for pentavalent rotavirus vaccine", Human Vaccines & Immunotherapies 1–7 (2017). www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21645515.2017.1356522
