Nils Mülling (Essen/ DE), Lukas van de Sand (Essen/ DE), Kim Völk (Essen/ DE), Ulrich W. Aufderhorst (Essen/ DE), Mark van der Linden (Aachen/ DE), Prof. Dr. Peter Alexander Horn (Essen/ DE), Andreas Kribben (Essen/ DE), Benjamin Wilde (Essen/ DE), PD Dr. Adalbert Krawczyk (Essen/ DE), Oliver Witzke (Essen/ DE), Prof. Dr. Monika Lindemann (Essen/ DE)
Background
To reduce the morbidity and mortality from invasive pneumococcal disease, vaccination against Streptococcus pneumoniae is recommended in kidney transplant recipients, using sequential vaccination with the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine Prevenar 13 (PCV13) and the polysaccharide vaccine Pneumovax 23 (PPSV23). However, there are currently no data on serological responses after sequential vaccination in this cohort.
Methods
In the current study, we sequentially vaccinated 46 kidney transplant recipients with PCV13 and PPSV23 and determined serotype-specific and global anti-pneumococcal antibody responses in the year following vaccination.
Results
After vaccination, serotype-specific and global antibody concentrations were significantly higher compared to baseline. We observed that serotype-specific antibody responses varied by serotype (2.2- to 2.9-fold increase after 12 months). The strongest responses after 12 months were detected against the serotypes 9N and 14. Global IgG2 antibodies against pneumococci revealed the highest increase, IgM antibodies the lowest. Sequential vaccination with both vaccines achieved higher antibody levels in comparison with a historical cohort studied at our institute, that was vaccinated with PCV13 alone. During the 12-months follow-up period, none of the patients developed pneumococcal-associated pneumonia or vaccination-related allograft rejection.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we strongly recommend sequential vaccination over single immunization in kidney transplant recipients.
* These authors contributed equally to the work and share first authorship.
Offenlegung Interessenkonflikt:
None.