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An understanding of the nature of immunity to serogroup B meningococci in childhood is necessary in order to establish the reasons for poor responses to candidate vaccines in infancy. We sought to examine the nature of humoral immune responses following infection in relation to age. Serum bactericidal activity was poor in children under 12 months of age despite recent infection with Neisseria meningitidis. The highest levels of bactericidal activity were seen in children over 10 years of age. However, infants produced levels of total immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgG subclass antibodies similar to those in older children in a meningococcal enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Most antibody was of the IgG1 and IgG3 subclasses. This striking age dependency of bactericidal antibody response following infection is not apparently due to failure of class switching in infants but might be due to qualitative differences in antibody specificity or affinity.

Original publication

DOI

10.1128/iai.67.5.2441-2451.1999

Type

Journal article

Journal

Infection and immunity

Publication Date

05/1999

Volume

67

Pages

2441 - 2451

Addresses

Departments of Paediatrics and Infectious Diseases & Microbiology, Imperial College School of Medicine, St. Mary's Hospital, London W2 1PG, United Kingdom. AJPollard@csi.com

Keywords

Animals, Rabbits, Humans, Neisseria meningitidis, Meningitis, Meningococcal, Meningococcal Infections, Immunoglobulin G, Bacterial Vaccines, Meningococcal Vaccines, Antibodies, Bacterial, Serotyping, Case-Control Studies, Age Factors, Blood Bactericidal Activity, Adult, Child, Child, Preschool, Infant, Complement System Proteins