Immunological Basis of Differences in Protection Between Pertussis Vaccines: The recent
increase in cases of whooping cough among teenagers in the US suggests that the protection
conferred by the acellular Bordetella pertussis vaccine (aP) that became standard in the mid
1990s is of shorter duration than that conferred by the whole-bacteria formulation (wP) used
since the 1950s. To understand the potential basis for this differential efficacy, we are
comparing T cell epitope repertoires and exploring the molecular basis and immune signatures
for differences in responses between aP- and wP-primed individuals.
Selected References
da Silva Antunes R, Quiambao LG, Sutherland A, et al. Development and Validation of a Bordetella pertussis Whole-Genome Screening Strategy. J Immunol Res. 2020;2020:8202067. Published 2020 Apr 2. doi:10.1155/2020/8202067