Fig. 1: Functional antibody response to PCV13 and PPSV23 in older adults.
a, Schematic representation of the study design. Nine women and ten men received the PCV13 vaccine, and ten women and ten men received PPSV23. OPA titers for the 13 serotypes were assessed from serum samples obtained 7 d before vaccination (baseline) and 28 d after vaccination for both vaccines. Anticoagulated blood samples were used for flow cytometric analysis of whole-blood cell populations. PBMCs were isolated for bulk RNA-seq. Prevaccination PBMCs from four women and seven men who received PCV13 were isolated for scRNA-seq. The numbers in circles represent the total numbers of biologically independent samples processed for the indicated assays at the indicated times. Figure created with BioRender.com. The star indicates scRNA-seq data generated exclusively for the PCV13 baseline samples. b, Bubble plot of fold change (FC) in antibody titers for individual serotypes in response to PCV13 (n = 19); M, male; F, female. c, Bubble plot of fold change in antibody titers for individual serotypes in response to PPSV23 (n = 20). Dot size represents the fold change value, and color indicates a significant response (log2(fold change) is >3), with blue for PCV13 and red for PPSV23. Donors are ordered from top to bottom according to the vaccine response rank. On the left, the strength (log2(sum fold change)), extent of response (number of serotypes out of 13 to which an individual mounted a significant response) and rank are presented. d, Prevaccination and postvaccination cumulative OPA titers (expressed as sum log2) in response to PCV13 (n = 19) and PPSV23 (n = 20). e, Correlation analysis between the cumulative fold change (sum log2(fold change)) and age (in years). f,g, Sex-specific differences in strength, extent and rank in donors who received PCV13 (n = 19; f) and PPSV23 (n = 20; g). A Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test (two sided) was used in d to compare titers before and after vaccination with PCV13 or PPSV23. Box plots display the median and interquartile range (IQR; 25–75%), with whiskers representing the upper and lower quartiles ±1.5× IQR. A Wilcoxon rank-sum test (two sided) was used to compare strength, extent and rank between men and women vaccinated with PCV13 and PPSV23. The Pearson correlation metric was used to perform correlation analyses between strength and age (e), and P values were computed using two-sided t-tests; n represents the number of biological replicates.
