A pioneering study from Finland reveals significant breakthrough in protecting infants from whooping cough through maternal vaccination. Researchers demonstrated that vaccinating pregnant women can boost both quantity and quality of antibodies in newborns. The study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, shows the vaccine is safe and well-tolerated. These findings offer hope in combating a respiratory infection that claims nearly 195,000 children's lives annually worldwide.
May 05, 2025
Vaccine against whooping cough in pregnancy to boost antibodies, protect baby
"Pertussis-specific antibody
quality and memory B-cell responses were preserved" - University of Turku
Research Team
Vaccinating pregnant women
against whooping cough can boost the quantity and quality of antibodies in the
early life of infants, according to a study.
Key Points
1 Maternal
vaccination provides critical early life protection against whooping cough
2 WHO
reports 16 million annual pertussis cases globally
3 Vaccine
demonstrates safety and effectiveness in infant antibody development
Whooping cough, also known as
pertussis, is a highly contagious respiratory infection characterised by severe
coughing spells that can end in a high-pitched "whoop" when inhaling.
It is caused by the bacteria Bordetella pertussis.
Despite extensive vaccinations,
the disease has resurged. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that
there are 16 million cases annually and approximately 195,000 deaths in
children globally.
Researchers at the University of
Turku in Finland conducted a randomised, controlled, double-blind, phase 4
trial in Gambia to evaluate the effect of pertussis immunisation in pregnancy.
Two types of pertussis vaccines
are currently used worldwide: whole-cell vaccines (wPVs) based on killed whole
bacteria and acellular vaccines (aPVs) based on one to five purified bacterial
antigens.
The findings, published in The
Lancet Infectious Diseases, demonstrated that vaccinating women with
diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis vaccines in pregnancy was safe and well
tolerated and boosted the quantity and quality of pertussis-specific antibodies
in infants in early life.
Since the highest incidence and
mortality of pertussis occur in infants, especially those too young to be
vaccinated, immunisation in pregnancy (IP) is recommended to protect infants in
early life against pertussis.
However, studies have shown that
IP can decrease the antibody responses of infants to their primary
diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccination. This phenomenon is
called "blunting."
Blunting of vaccine responses has
been observed in IgG-antibody concentrations to different pertussis vaccine
antigens, specifically, pertussis toxin, filamentous hemagglutinin, pertactin,
and diphtheria toxin.
"This study was designed to
evaluate the effect of IP on the immunogenicity of primary acellular or
whole-cell pertussis vaccines in a West African cohort," said the
researchers led by Qiushui He, a Professor, at the varsity, who found the
vaccine to be effective.
"Although Tdap-IPV (Tetanus, diphtheria,
acellular pertussis, polio vaccine) was associated with relative blunting of
the immune response to the DTwP (Diphtheria-Tetanus-whole-cell pertussis)
primary vaccination series, pertussis-specific antibody quality and memory
B-cell responses were nevertheless preserved," the team added.
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