Kelly Martinovich (Australia)
Telethon Kids Institute
Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines & Infectious Diseases
I have been research active for 13 years: 7 years as a postgraduate research assistant, 5 years as a PhD student and 18 months as a postdoctoral scientist (current). I have published 18 papers (4 first author), with a total of 392 citations and 83% in Q1 prestigious international journals including Frontiers of Immunology, Frontiers of Pharmacology, Vaccine and the European Respiratory Journal. I am currently in a leadership role within the Bacterial Respiratory Infectious Diseases Group, contributing to the commercialisation of our novel therapy to prevent ear infections and investigating maternal antibody transfer for specific NTHi and Pneumococcal antigens that are potential vaccine candidates.

Presenter of 1 Presentation

 Conference Calendar

O086 - INVESTIGATING MATERNAL TRANSFER OF PNEUMOCOCCAL AND NTHI PROTEIN ANTIBODIES IN AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL INFANTS (ID 337)

Session Name
0750 - Parallel Session 10: Pneumococcal Disease and Prevention in Indigenous and Other Populations (ID 64)
Session Type
Parallel Session
Date
Wed, 22.06.2022
Session Time
15:05 - 16:35
Room
Grand Ballroom East
Presenter
Lecture Time
16:20 - 16:30

Abstract

Background

Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and Papua New Guinean (PNG) children, experience disproportionately high rates of pneumococcal and nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) infections. We demonstrated differences in pneumococcal and NTHi antibody ontogeny in PNG infants suggesting lower NTHi specific maternal antibody transfer. In this study we assessed if 1) antibody ontogeny was similar in Aboriginal infants and 2) if patterns were due to low maternal antibody titres or lack of placental transfer.

Methods

Antibody titres to pneumococcal (PspA1, PspA2, CbpA, Ply) and NTHi antigens (Protein D (PD), ChimV4, OMP26, rsPilA) were measured in 84 maternal, 80 cord and 27 7-month-old Aboriginal infant sera (IgG), and 145 breast milk samples collected at 1,2, 7 months (IgA) using in-house multi-plexed bead-based immunoassays.

Results

Antibody titres in cord and maternal sera were similar for all antigens, except Ply (higher in cord;p=0.004). Infant sera IgG were lower than cord blood titres for all pneumococcal antigens(p<0.001). Infant sera titres were higher compared to cord IgG for PD(p=0.029), similar for OMP26(p=0.817) and rsPilA(p=0.290) and lower for ChimV4(p=0.004). Breast milk IgA were similar at 1, 2 and 7 months for all antigens except OMP26 (lower at 7 months than 1 month(p=0.035)).

Conclusions

These data support previous findings demonstrating waning of maternally-derived pneumococcal, but not NTHi antibodies (except ChimV4) in young Aboriginal infants. The similarities between maternal and cord IgG, and the absence of waning, support a lack of maternal NTHi antibodies for cross-placental transfer. Maternal immunisation strategies should be considered for NTHi protein vaccines.

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