Placental transfer of maternal poliovirus antibodies in full-term and pre-term infants

doi:10.1016/S0264-410X(97)00180-1

Vaccine

Volume 16, Issues 2–3, January–February 1998, Pages 236-239

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0264-410X(97)00180-1 Get rights and content

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the placental transfer of maternal poliovirus antibodies in full-term and pre-term infants. Two hundred healthy, Israeli born mothers and their infants, were enrolled immediately after birth. The study population comprised two groups: a full-term group of 150 mothers and their infants, and a pre-term group of 50 mothers and their infants (gestational age <35 weeks). Maternal and umbilical cord blood samples were taken in all cases. Antibody titers against the three poliovirus serotypes and a polio virus type 1 strain that caused an outbreak in 1988 (epidemic strain 1) were measured by a microneutralization system. The proportion of individuals with protective titers against each of the poliovirus types tested was slightly lower in the infants compared with their mothers. When protection to all strains combined was tested, the difference between mothers and infants was significant (P < 0.05). Transplacental transfer to epidemic strain 1 was less effective—12% of the premature infants were not protected against it at birth. The geometric mean titers against poliovirus types 1, 3 and epidemic type 1 strain were significantly lower in the pre-term group than in the full-term group. In both the full-term and pre-term groups there were significant linear correlations between the maternal and neonatal antibody titers for each of the polio viruses tested. For all poliovirus types, the transfer of maternal antibodies to the full-term infant was significantly higher than the transfer of maternal antibodies to the pre-term infant (P < 0.001). Owing to diminished transfer of maternal antibodies, pre-term infants are at greater risk of poliovirus infection.

References (12)

N. Linder et al.
Early immunization with inactivated poliovirus vaccine in premature infants
Journal of Pediatrics
(1995)
M.S. Green et al.
Age differences in immunity against wild and vaccine strains of poliovirus prior to the 1988 outbreak in Israel and response to booster immunization
Vaccine
(1993)
W.L. Aycock et al.
Immunity of poliomyelitis in mothers and the newborn as shown by neutralization test
Journal of Experimental Medicine
(1930)
P.E. Slater et al.
Poliomyelitis outbreak in Israel in 1988: a report with two commentaries
Lancet
(1990)
Surveillance of poliomyelitis: lessons learnt from the 1992/1993 outbreak in the Netherlands
H.E. Evans et al.
Serum immunoglobulin levels in premature and full term infants
American Journal of Clinical Pathology
(1971)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (15)

Serostatus of echovirus 11, coxsackievirus B3 and enterovirus D68 in cord blood: The implication of severe newborn enterovirus infection
2023, Journal of Microbiology, Immunology and Infection
Maternal transplacental antibody is an important origins of passive immunity against neonatal enterovirus infection. Echovirus 11 (E11) and coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) are important types causing neonatal infections. There were few investigations of enterovirus D68 (EVD68) infection in neonates. We aimed to investigate the serostatus of cord blood for these three enteroviruses and evaluate the factors associated with seropositivity.
We enrolled 222 parturient (gestational age 34–42 weeks) women aged 20–46 years old between January and October 2021. All participants underwent questionnaire investigation and we collected the cord blood to measure the neutralization antibodies against E11, CVB3 and EVD68.
The cord blood seropositive rates were 18% (41/222), 60% (134/232) and 95% (211/222) for E11, CVB3 and EVD68, respectively (p < 0.001). Geometric mean titers were 3.3 (95% CI 2.9–3.8) for E11, 15.9 (95% CI 12.5–20.3) for CVB3 and 109.9 (95% CI 92.4–131.6) for EVD68. Younger parturient age (33.8 ± 3.6 versus 35.2 ± 4.4, p = 0.04) was related to E11 seropositivity. Neonatal sex, gestational age and birth body weight were not significantly different between the seropositive group and the seronegative group.
Cord blood seropositive rate and geometric mean titer of E11 were very low, so a large proportion of newborns are susceptible to E11. The circulation of E11 was low after 2019 in Taiwan. A large cohort of immune naïve newborns existed currently due to lack of protective maternal antibodies. It is imminent to monitor the epidemiology of neonates with enterovirus infections and strengthen the relevant preventive policies.
Challenging definitions and diagnostic approaches for ancient rare diseases: The case of poliomyelitis
2021, International Journal of Paleopathology
Citation Excerpt :
In fact, Nathanson and Martin (1979) postulated that until public sanitation improved, enteric infections were so common that babies, exposed to human waste and poliovirus early in life, would have been protected by maternal antibodies through the mother’s milk. Linder et al. (1998) demonstrate that there is at least some placental transfer of maternal antibodies. While the infection was conﬁned in the gut, infants would be protected against viremia.
This paper aims to contribute to the definition of ancient rare diseases in skeletons displaying pathologies associated with paralysis. It uses a new suite of methods, which can be applied to challenging cases of possible paralysis in archaeologically-derived human skeletal material, specifically applied to the identification of poliomyelitis.
An adult male skeleton from Roman Halbturn, Austria.
Morphological and entheseal change analyses, CT scans, X-rays, cross-section morphology, and histology, alongside modern clinical, as well as historic, literature were used to discuss paralyses.
The results suggest a diagnosis of poliomyelitis; now considered a rare disease, but perhaps ubiquitous in antiquity, thus complicating the definition of ‘rare disease’.
The integrated methodological procedures employed for this case constitutes a replicable and thorough approach to diagnosis, and explores the nature of ancient rare diseases. Due to the socio-environmental aspects of poliomyelitis transmission, it is likely that polio was likely not rare in the past. Therefore, the definition of ‘rare diseases in the past’ must include rarely occurring rarely diagnosed diseases due to biases and challenges within the archaeological and environmental record.
The developed suite of methods has not been applied to establish a diagnosis of polio in the past.
The individual considered in this study is fairly well-preserved; thus, this set of analyses may not be applicable to all remains where preservation is poor or highly fragmentary, and the discussion of rare diseases requires relatively secure diagnoses and context.
Large collections and series of skeletal human remains are recommended to develop definitive conclusions.
Poliovirus Vaccine–Inactivated
2017, Plotkin's Vaccines
Poliovirus vaccine-inactivated
2012, Vaccines: Sixth Edition
Transplacental transport of IgG antibodies to preterm infants: A review of the literature
2011, Early Human Development
Citation Excerpt :
The infant–maternal transfer ratio reached 1 by 32 (FHA) and 33 (Ptx) weeks of gestation in the study of Heininger et al. [27]. Infants had lower antibody concentrations than their mothers in the study of Linder et al. [33] Preterm infants had lower GMTs than term infants and lower maternal antibody transfer. A strong correlation between maternal and infant IgG concentrations for both preterm and term infants was observed in 8 of the included studies [18–22,24–26,28,32,33], while 3 of the included studies found this correlation only between term infants and their mothers [20,21,28].
Newborn infants, especially preterm infants, have an immature immune system, which is not capable to actively protect against vaccine-preventable infections. Therefore, the newborn is dependent on transplacental transport of Immunoglobulin G (IgG), an active, FcRn receptor mediated process. Fetal IgG rises from approximately 10% of the maternal concentration at 17–22 weeks of gestation to 50% at 28–32 weeks of gestation. If transplacental acquired IgG is lower in preterm than in term infants, preterm infants are especially at risk for these vaccine-preventable diseases.
The aim of this study was to review the transplacental transfer of IgG against vaccine-preventable diseases (measles, rubella, varicella-zoster, mumps, Haemophilus influenza type B, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio) to (pre)term infants and to identify factors that influence the transplacental transfer of these antigens.
After selection, 18 studies on transplacental transport to preterm infants were included. In general, these studies showed for all antibodies that preterm infants have lower antibody concentrations compared with term infants. Maternal and infants antibody concentrations showed a strong correlation in 7 of the included studies. Infant antibody concentration was not associated with parity, maternal age, height or weight. Infants of vaccinated mothers had lower anti-measles antibody titers than infants of natural immunized mothers. IgG titers of preterm infants decrease earlier in life below protective antibody titers than term infants. Combined with their immature immune system, this puts preterm infants at increased risk for vaccine-preventable diseases.
Poliovirus vaccine-inactivated
2008, Vaccines

View all citing articles on Scopus

¹: Present address: Department of Neonatology, Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel, Kaplan Street 14, Petach-Tikva 49202, Israel. Tel.: 00 972 3 9253753; fax: 00 972 2 5340934.

View full text

PaperPlacental transfer of maternal poliovirus antibodies in full-term and pre-term infants

Abstract

Journal of Pediatrics

Vaccine

Immunity of poliomyelitis in mothers and the newborn as shown by neutralization test

Journal of Experimental Medicine

Poliomyelitis outbreak in Israel in 1988: a report with two commentaries

Lancet

Surveillance of poliomyelitis: lessons learnt from the 1992/1993 outbreak in the Netherlands

Serum immunoglobulin levels in premature and full term infants

American Journal of Clinical Pathology

Paper
Placental transfer of maternal poliovirus antibodies in full-term and pre-term infants