Is the host viral response and the immunogenicity of vaccines altered in pregnancy?
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Published version
Author(s)
Saeed, Zainab
Greer, Orene
Shah, Nishel Mohan
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The intricacy of the maternal immune system arises from its ability to prevent a maternal immune response against a semi-allogenic fetus, while protecting the mother against harmful pathogens. However, these immunological adaptations may also make pregnant women vulnerable to developing adverse complications from respiratory viral infections. While the influenza and SARS pandemics support this theory, there is less certainty regarding the clinical impact of SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy. In the current COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine development is key to public preventative strategies. Whilst most viral vaccines are able to induce a seroprotective antibody response, in some high-risk individuals this may not correlate with clinical protection. Some studies have shown that factors such as age, gender, and chronic illnesses can reduce their effectiveness and in this review, we discuss how pregnancy may affect the efficacy and immunogenicity of vaccines. We present literature to support the hypothesis that pregnant women are more susceptible to respiratory viral infections and may not respond to vaccines as effectively. In particular, we focus on the clinical implications of important respiratory viral infections such as influenza during pregnancy, and the pregnancy induced alterations in important leukocytes such as TFH, cTFH and B cells, which play an important role in generating long-lasting and high-affinity antibodies. Finally, we review how this may affect the efficacy of vaccines against influenza in pregnancy and highlight areas that require further research.
Date Issued
2020-08-04
Date Acceptance
2020-07-21
Citation
Antibodies, 2020, 9 (3), pp.1-17
ISSN
2073-4468
Publisher
MDPI AG
Start Page
1
End Page
17
Journal / Book Title
Antibodies
Volume
9
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Sponsor
Westminster Medical School Research Trust
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32759839
PII: antib9030038
Grant Number
JRC PHD 001 2019-20
Subjects
B cell
antibodies
influenza
pregnancy
vaccine
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Switzerland
Date Publish Online
2020-08-04