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Shorter duration of protection and lower geometric mean titers against A/H3N2 antigen of the quadrivalent influenza vaccine in children post-allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 57, pages 1620–1622 (2022)Cite this article

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Children that have undergone hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) are at a higher risk for complications from influenza and progression to severe disease [1]. Therefore, influenza vaccines are recommended starting post-transplant 6 months [2]. Previous studies have shown lower prevalence and hospital admission rates in post-HSCT adults immunized with the influenza vaccine compared to those unimmunized [3]. Although there is a lack of data on children that have undergone HSCT, one study showed superior serologic response compared to age-matched controls for all vaccine strains [4]. However, there remains a paucity of data on the effectiveness and duration of seroprotection of the influenza vaccine in children, especially those that have undergone HSCT or chemotherapy. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to investigate immunogenicity and duration of seroprotection in children that have undergone HSCT compared to those that received chemotherapy and healthy age-matched controls.

We conducted a prospective study of patients below 18 years old that received HSCT or chemotherapy at the pediatric bone marrow center of Seoul St. Mary’s hospital, South Korea. An age-matched control group of healthy subjects without any underlying immunocompromising disease or immunosuppressants and immunomodulator use within 4 weeks prior to vaccine administration were included. Participants below 18 years of age received either one dose or 2 doses of the quadrivalent influenza vaccine administered at least 4 weeks apart according the appropriate schedule for children during the 2020–2021 influenza season from October 2020 to January 2021 [5].

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Fig. 1: Comparison of the seroprotection rates and geometric mean titers of the patients included in this study.

Data availability

The hemagglutination inhibition assay titers (raw data) are available on Supplementary Table 5.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Research Fund of Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, and Green Cross Pharma.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vaccine Bio Research Institute, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Kyu Ri Kang, Ye Ji Kim, Hyun Mi Kang & Jin Han Kang

  2. Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Ye Ji Kim, Moon Bae Ahn, Hyun Mi Kang, Seong Koo Kim, Jae Wook Lee, Nack-Gyun Chung, Bin Cho, Dae Chul Jeong & Jin Han Kang

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  1. Kyu Ri Kang
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Contributions

HMK designed the study. KRK conducted the experiments. HMK analyzed the data. KRK, YJK, MBA, HMK, SKK, JWL, N-GC, BC, DCJ and JHK collected and retrieved the data. HMK, KRK and JHK wrote the manuscript. KRK, YJK, MBA, HMK, SKK, JWL, N-GC, BC, DCJ and JHK read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hyun Mi Kang.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Kang, K.R., Kim, Y.J., Ahn, M.B. et al. Shorter duration of protection and lower geometric mean titers against A/H3N2 antigen of the quadrivalent influenza vaccine in children post-allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 57, 1620–1622 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-022-01768-6

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