You are currently viewing the abstract.
View Full TextLog in to view the full text
AAAS login provides access to Science for AAAS members, and access to other journals in the Science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions.
More options
Download and print this article for your personal scholarly, research, and educational use.
Buy a single issue of Science for just $15 USD.
Abstract
Bacterial conjugate vaccines are used in infants, adolescents, and the elderly, and they are among the safest and most successful vaccines developed during the last 40 years. Conjugation of polysaccharides to proteins provides T cell epitopes that are necessary in the germinal centers for the affinity maturation of polysaccharide-specific B cells. Collective analysis of data from animal experiments and clinical trials, reviewed with current knowledge of immunology, revealed possible mechanistic explanations that may improve our understanding of conjugate vaccines. Key conclusions are that naïve infants respond differently from adolescents and adults and that most of recommended schedules generate only 10 to 35% of the maximal antibody titer that the vaccine can induce, indicating that the full potential of glycoconjugate vaccines has not yet been reached.
- Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works
This is an article distributed under the terms of the Science Journals Default License.
