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© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

One approach to protect new-borns against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is to vaccinate pregnant women in the last trimester of pregnancy. The boosting of circulating antibodies which can be transferred to the foetus would offer immune protection against the virus and ultimately the disease. Since non-human primates (NHPs) have similar reproductive anatomy, physiology, and antibody architecture and kinetics to humans, we utilized this preclinical species to evaluate maternal immunization (MI) using an RSV F subunit vaccine. Three species of NHPs known for their ability to be infected with human RSV in experimental challenge studies were tested for RSV-specific antibodies. African green monkeys had the highest overall antibody levels of the old-world monkeys evaluated and they gave birth to offspring with anti-RSV titers that were proportional to their mother. These higher overall antibody levels are associated with greater durability found in their offspring. Immunization of RSV seropositive AGMs during late pregnancy boosts RSV titers, which consequentially results in significantly higher titers in the vaccinated new-borns compared to the new-borns of unvaccinated mothers. These findings, accomplished in small treatment group sizes, demonstrate a model that provides an efficient, resource sparing and translatable preclinical in vivo system for evaluating vaccine candidates for maternal immunization.

Details

Title
Transplacental Antibody Transfer of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Specific IgG in Non-Human Primate Mother-Infant Pairs
Author
Citron, Michael P 1 ; McAnulty, Jessica 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Callahan, Cheryl 1 ; Knapp, Walter 2 ; Fontenot, Jane 3 ; Morales, Pablo 4 ; Flynn, Jessica A 1 ; Douglas, Cameron M 1 ; Espeseth, Amy S 1 

 Infectious Disease & Vaccines, Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ 07033, USA; [email protected] (J.M.); [email protected] (C.C.); [email protected] (J.A.F.); [email protected] (C.M.D.); [email protected] (A.S.E.) 
 Safety Assessment and Laboratory Animal Resources, Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ 07033, USA; [email protected] 
 The New Iberia Research Center, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, New Iberia, LA 70560, USA; [email protected] 
 The Mannheimer Foundation, Homestead, FL 33034, USA; [email protected] 
First page
1441
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20760817
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2602146812
Copyright
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.