Antibody persistence to diphtheria toxoid, tetanus toxoid, Bordetella pertussis antigens, and Haemophilus influenzae type b following primary and first booster with pentavalent versus hexavalent vaccines

ABSTRACT

Thailand has incorporated the whole-cell (wP) pertussis vaccine into the expanded program on immunization since 1977 and has offered the acellular pertussis (aP) vaccine as an optional vaccine for infants since 2001. We followed healthy children from a clinical trial (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02408926) in which children were randomly assigned to receive either pentavalent (DTwP-HB-Hib) or hexavalent (DTaP-IPV-HB-Hib) vaccines for their primary series (administered at 2, 4, and 6 months) and first booster vaccination (18 months). Both groups received Tdap-IPV as a second booster at the age of 4 y. Blood samples were collected for evaluation of antibody persistence to diphtheria toxoid (DT), tetanus toxoid (TT), and Bordetella pertussis (B. pertussis) between 2 and 6 y of age annually, and for the immunogenicity study of Tdap-IPV at 1 month after the second booster. Antibody persistence to Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) was followed until 3 y of age. A total of 105 hexavalent-vaccinated children and 91 pentavalent-vaccinated children completed this study. Both pentavalent and hexavalent groups demonstrated increased antibody levels against DT, TT, and B. pertussis antigens following the second booster with Tdap-IPV. All children achieved a seroprotective concentration for anti-DT and anti-TT IgG at 1 month post booster. The hexavalent group possessed significantly higher anti-pertactin IgG (adjusted p = .023), whereas the pentavalent group possessed significantly higher anti-pertussis toxin IgG (adjusted p < .001) after the second booster. Despite declining levels post-second booster, a greater number of children sustained protective levels of anti-DT and anti-TT IgG compared to those after the first booster.

KEYWORDS:

• Diphtheria
• tetanus
• pertussis
• Haemophilus influenzae type b
• whole cell
• acellular
• vaccine antibody
• childhood

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. G. Lamar Robert, Ph.D., for English editing of this article. The authors thank the Thrasher Research Fund Award for their financial support in establishing this children cohort from birth to 19 months.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data will be available upon request.

Authors’ contribution

Nasamon Wanlapakorn: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Supervision, Writing-original draft, Writing, reviewing and editing, Funding acquisition. Nasiri Sarawanangkoor: Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing-original draft. Donchida Srimuan: Project administration. Thaksaporn Thatsanathorn: Project administration. Thanunrat Thongmee: Investigation, Methodology. Yong Poovorawan: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing – reviewing, and editing.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website at https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2024.2352909

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the Research Grant for Talented Young Researchers [N41A640104] from the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT), the Fiscal Year 2018 research grant from the Government of Thailand, the Ratchadaphisek Somphot Fund, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University and the Research Grant from the Center of Excellence in Clinical Virology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University.