Group B Streptococcus (GBS) colonisation is dynamic over time, whilst GBS capsular polysaccharides-specific antibody remains stable
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Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a leading cause of adverse pregnancy outcomes due to invasive infection. This study investigated longitudinal variation in GBS rectovaginal colonisation, serum and vaginal GBS capsular polysaccharide (CPS)-specific antibody levels. Non-pregnant women were recruited in the UK, and were sampled every two weeks over a 12-week period. GBS isolates were taken from recto-vaginal swabs and serotyped by polymerase chain reaction. Serum and vaginal immunoglobulin G (IgG) and nasal immunoglobulin A (IgA) specific to CPS were measured by Luminex, and total IgG/A by ELISA. 70 women were enrolled, of median age 26. Out of the 66 participants who completed at least three visits: 14/47 (29.8%) women that were GBS negative at screening became positive in follow up visits and 16/19 (84.2%) women who were GBS positive at screening became negative. There was 50% probability of becoming negative 36 days after the first positive swab. The rate of detectable GBS carriage fluctuated over time, although serum, vaginal and nasal CPS-specific antibody levels remained constant. Levels of CPS-specific antibodies were higher in the serum of individuals colonised with GBS than in non-colonised, but similar in the vaginal and nasal mucosa. We found correlations between antibody levels in serum and the vaginal and nasal mucosa. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of elution methods to retrieve vaginal and nasal antibodies, and the optimisation of immunoassays to measure GBS-CPS specific antibodies. The difference between the dynamics of colonisation and antibody response is interesting and further investigation is required for vaccine development.
Date Issued
2022-08
Date Acceptance
2022-04-01
Citation
Clinical and Experimental Immunology, 2022, 209 (2), pp.188-200
ISSN
0009-9104
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Start Page
188
End Page
200
Journal / Book Title
Clinical and Experimental Immunology
Volume
209
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Immunology.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/),
which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/),
which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Sponsor
Wellcome Trust
Wellcome Trust
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35802786
PII: 6634194
Grant Number
214407/Z/18/Z
HiC-VaC
Subjects
GBS vaccine
Group B Streptococcus
capsular-polysaccharides specific antibodies
colonisation
mucosal immunity
neonatal infection
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Date Publish Online
2022-07-08