Abstract
The live-attenuated measles vaccine is poorly immunogenic in infants because of immune suppressive maternal antibodies and immaturity of the infant's immune system. Selected peptides corresponding to sequential, subdominant B cell epitopes of measles virus (MV) glycoproteins have been shown to induce neutralizing and protective antibodies even in the presence of whole virus antibodies. Similar to polysaccharide-conjugate vaccines, which are highly effective in infants a peptide-conjugate vaccine against measles is proposed. Such a vaccine induces carrier-specific T cells, avoiding measles-specific Th2 cells associated with the risk of atypical measles. This article discusses the rationale of such a strategy and its future potential.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 663-666 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Vaccine |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue number | 7-8 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 30 Jan 2003 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Atypical measles
- Conjugate vaccine
- Infant immunization
- Measles virus (MV)
- Synthetic peptides