Carrier priming to improve pneumococcal disease control and reduce the international program's cost in children

Mohamed Tashani; Harunor Rashid; Kim Mulholland; Robert Booy

doi:10.1186/s41479-016-0016-8

Carrier priming to improve pneumococcal disease control and reduce the international program's cost in children

Pneumonia (Nathan). 2016 Sep 27:8:16. doi: 10.1186/s41479-016-0016-8. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Mohamed Tashani^{1

2

3}, Harunor Rashid^{1

2

3

4}, Kim Mulholland^{5

6}, Robert Booy^{1

2

3

4

7}

Affiliations

¹ National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, NSW Australia.
² The Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW Australia.
³ NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence-Immunisation in understudied and special risk populations: closing the gap in knowledge through a multidisciplinary approach, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
⁴ Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, School of Biological Sciences and Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
⁵ Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Melbourne, VIC Australia.
⁶ London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
⁷ WHO Collaborating Centre for Mass Gatherings and High Consequence/High Visibility Events, Flinders University, Adelaide, 5001 Australia.

Abstract

Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) has the potential to interact with other vaccines containing diphtheria toxin-like antigens (such as those found in the DTP vaccine) upon sequential administration. This is attributed to the similarity of the diphtheria toxoid antigen to the carrier protein used to make PCV, (known as cross reactive material [CRM]) to diphtheria toxin ₁₉₇ or CRM₁₉₇. The interaction could lead to enhanced immunogenicity of PCV as a result of a phenomenon called carrier priming, whereby DTP is given some weeks before the first dose of PCV. This phenomenon could be implemented in the immunisation schedule in developing countries and among vulnerable populations to enhance the immunogenicity of PCV, reduce the number of doses required, and produce a more cost-effective immunisation program in developing countries.

Keywords: Carrier priming; Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.

Publication types

Editorial