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Abundant fecal microbiota may enhance vaccine response
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Results of a cohort study from India indicate a significant association between the fecal microbiota and responses to both oral and systemic vaccines.
Researchers from the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research in Dhaka, Bangladesh, India, conducted a study among 48 breast-fed infants from Bangladesh to correlate relative abundance of stool bacteria with infant vaccine responses at age 6, 10 and 15 weeks.
All infants received oral polio virus (OPV) and Bacillus Calmette–Guérin vaccines at birth. They also received OPV, diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus and hepatitis B virus vaccines at age 6, 10 and 14 weeks, according to the poster data.
Although the study was not designed to establish causality, researchers found that Bifidobacterium predominance may enhance thymic development and responses to T-cell–dependent vaccines early in an infant’s life. However, deviation from this pattern may result in greater diversity and inflammation that results in lower vaccine responses.
“Promoting intestinal Bifidobacteria and limiting bacterial diversity early in infancy might improve vaccine responsiveness,” they concluded.