YOU ARE NOW CONNECTED TO THE TOXLINE (1981 FORWARD, NON-ROYALTY) FILE. ==PNEUMOCOCCAL CONJUGATE VACCINE== 1 AUTHOR Leach A AUTHOR Ceesay SJ AUTHOR Banya WA AUTHOR Greenwood BM TITLE Pilot trial of a pentavalent pneumococcal polysaccharide/protein conjugate vaccine in Gambian infants. SOURCE Pediatr Infect Dis J; VOL 15, ISS 4, 1996, P333-9 ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Invasive pneumococcal disease is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in young children in developing countries. Pneumococcal polysaccharide/protein conjugate vaccines, which are likely to be immunogenic in the very young, offer a potential way for preventing these infections. Therefore a pilot safety and immunogenicity study of a five-valent conjugate vaccine has been undertaken in an area of rural Africa where invasive pneumococcal disease is prevalent. METHODS: Thirty Gambian infants were vaccinated with 3 doses of a five-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine containing 5 micrograms of type 6B, 14, 18, 19F and 23F polysaccharides conjugated to the diphtheria toxin mutant protein CRM197 at the ages of 2, 3 and 4 months; 30 infants received 2 doses at the ages of 2 and 4 months and 30 infants who received three doses of a Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine acted as controls. Local and systemic reactions were recorded after vaccination and antibody titers were measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: No serious local or systemic reactions to vaccination were recorded. Antibody responses to each component of the vaccine were demonstrated. One month after immunization with three doses of vaccine, antibody titers were 3 to 11 times higher than before vaccination (postvaccination titers ranged from 2.49 micrograms/ml for type 19 polysaccharide to 7.59 micrograms/ml for type 14). Elevated titers were well-maintained during the subsequent 4 months. Three doses of vaccine induced higher titers than did two doses. Antibody titers increased 2- to 3-fold over the period of immunization in children who received H. influenzae type b vaccine. CONCLUSIONS: A five-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine proved safe and immunogenic in Gambian infants. However, a vaccine containing a larger number of serotypes will be necessary to achieve a maximal clinical impact. 2 AUTHOR Ahman H AUTHOR Kayhty H AUTHOR Tamminen P AUTHOR Vuorela A AUTHOR Malinoski F AUTHOR Eskola J TITLE Pentavalent pneumococcal oligosaccharide conjugate vaccine PncCRM is well-tolerated and able to induce an antibody response in infants. SOURCE Pediatr Infect Dis J; VOL 15, ISS 2, 1996, P134-9 ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: The emergence of resistant pneumococci makes the treatment of pneumococcal diseases difficult. The currently available polysaccharide vaccines have very limited efficacy in young children. The immunogenicity can be improved by covalent coupling to protein carriers as has been shown with Haemophilus influenzae type b. METHODS: Thirty healthy infants were immunized with a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine at 2, 4 and 6 months of age. Oligosaccharides were derived from capsular polysaccharides of types 6B, 14, 18C, 19F and 23F and conjugated to the nontoxic mutant diphtheria toxin CRM197. The final vaccine was a mixture of these conjugates, containing 10 micrograms of each oligosaccharide. The infants received simultaneously H. influenzae type b oligosaccharide-CRM197 conjugate vaccine. Serum samples were taken before each dose and 1 month after the third dose. Control material was composed of 25 serum samples taken from children of the same age without pneumococcal vaccination. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure serum IgG anti-pneumococcal polysaccharide concentrations and radioimmunoassay for the serum Ig anti-H. influenzae type b concentrations. RESULTS: PncCRM vaccine was well-tolerated. Pneumococcal type 18C induced a significant antibody increase after the first dose, whereas the other five oligosaccharides, including H. influenzae type b oligosaccharides, induced an increase after the second or third dose. The specific IgG concentrations at 7 months of age were significantly higher among the vaccinated infants than in the controls for all the five pneumococcal types. CONCLUSIONS: Pneumococcal oligosaccharide-CRM197 conjugate vaccine is able to induce an IgG serum response in infants and anti-pneumococcal antibody concentrations were significantly higher than in controls of same age. 7 AUTHOR Anderson EL AUTHOR Kennedy DJ AUTHOR Geldmacher KM AUTHOR Donnelly J AUTHOR Mendelman PM TITLE Immunogenicity of heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in infants. SOURCE J Pediatr; VOL 128, ISS 5 Pt 1, 1996, P649-53 ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the safety, immunogenicity, and immunologic memory in young infants of a seven-valent (6B, 14, 19F, 23F, 18C, 4, 9V) pneumococcal vaccine conjugated to the outer membrane protein complex of Neisseria meningitidis. VACCINEES: Healthy 2-month-old infants 12- to 15-month-old control infants were recruited from participating private practices. METHODS: Infants (n = 25) were vaccinated at 2, 4, and 6 months of age with the conjugated pneumococcal vaccine, followed by a single dose of licensed pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (n = 20) at 12 to 15 months of age. Thirteen infants who had not received the investigational pneumococcal conjugate vaccine served as control subjects and were given a single dose of the licensed pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine at 12 to 15 months of age. RESULTS: The investigational pneumococcal conjugate vaccine was well tolerated by infants. The vaccine was highly immunogenic in young infants, with significant increases in antibody to all seven serotypes after either two or three injections. At 12 to 15 months of age, infants who had been primed with the investigational pneumococcal conjugate vaccine had a brisk immunologic response to the booster injection of the licensed pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine. Control infants, who received a single primary injection of the licensed pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine, had negligible immunologic responses to four of the seven serotypes and low responses to the other three types. CONCLUSION: The investigational seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine administered to young infants was well tolerated and highly immunogenic and provided immunologic memory to an injection of the licensed pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine.