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How immunology can help reverse the pertussis vaccine failure

Nature Immunology volume 24, pages 1779–1780 (2023)Cite this article

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Current acellular pertussis vaccines prevent disease but do not prevent nasal infection and transmission of Bordetella pertussis. However, immunology is helping to design new vaccines that induce sterilizing immunity.

The introduction of aP vaccines in most middle- to high-income countries in the 1990s, was followed by a resurgence of pertussis, with periodic epidemics. Although pediatric or maternal vaccination prevents severe and sometime fatal disease in infants, current aP vaccines do not prevent infection with B. pertussis, enabling asymptomatic transmission from immunized individuals. Furthermore, antibody responses wane quickly after vaccination. Booster immunization programs in children, adolescents and even adults temporarily boost low antibody titers, but do not confer long-term protection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Kingston H. G. Mills

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  1. Kingston H. G. Mills
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Correspondence to Kingston H. G. Mills.

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Competing interests

The author is an inventor on a patent around a new pertussis vaccine and receives research funding from and consults for vaccine manufacturers.

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Mills, K.H.G. How immunology can help reverse the pertussis vaccine failure. Nat Immunol 24, 1779–1780 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-023-01625-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-023-01625-8

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