Maternal antibodies against tetanus toxoid do not inhibit potency of antibody responses to autologous antigen in newborn rhesus monkeys.

Background: Our previous study suggested newborns have competent immune systems with the potential to respond to foreign antigens and vaccines. In this study, we examined infant immune responses to tetanus toxoid (TT) vaccination in the presence of maternal antibody to TT.

Methods: We examined changes in plasma levels of tetanus toxoid-specific IgG1 (anti-TT IgG1) in a total of eight infant rhesus macaques from birth through 6 months of age using a commercial Monkey Anti-TT IgG1 ELISA kit.

Results: A significant correlation between anti-TT IgG1 levels in vaccinated dams and their paired newborn infants was detected in control (non-vaccinated) infants as previously reported. Maternal anti-TT IgG1 levels declined rapidly within 1 month of birth in non-vaccinated infants (n=4). In four infants vaccinated with TT at birth, we found two had rapid and robust antibody responses to vaccination. Interestingly, the other two first showed declining TT antibody levels for 2 weeks followed by increasing levels without additional vaccine boosts, indicating all four had good antibody responses to primary TT vaccination at birth, despite the presence of high levels of maternal antibodies to TT in all four infants.

Conclusions: Our data indicate that newborn macaques have competent immune systems that are capable of generating their own primary antibody responses to vaccination, at least to tetanus antigens. Maternal antibodies thus do not significantly impair antibody response to the vaccination, even when received on the day of birth in infant rhesus macaques.