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Vaccines
Special Issues
Vaccine Efficacy and Safety in Transplant Recipients
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Vaccine Efficacy and Safety in Transplant Recipients

A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X). This special issue belongs to the section "Vaccine Efficacy and Safety".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2025 | Viewed by 898

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Ger Rijkers

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Science and Engineering Department, University College Roosevelt, 4331 CB Middelburg, The Netherlands
Interests: immunology; immunodeficiency; vaccination; pneumococcal pneumonia; SARS-CoV-2
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The immune system offers protection against bacterial, viral, and other infections. The immune system, however, may be inadequate in offering complete protection upon its first encounter with highly virulent micro-organisms such as tetanus or SARS-CoV-2. For these cases, the immune system response can be improved through vaccination with relevant antigens from these pathogens. Vaccination induces specific antibodies and effector T-cells, as well as memory B- and T-cells, which offer long-term protection. Successful vaccination does depend on an intact immune system of the host. Transplant recipients are treated with immunosuppressive drugs to prevent the rejection of the transplanted organ. As a consequence, regular vaccines, administered at regular doses and intervals, may not be as effective as in healthy individuals. Because of this immunosuppressive treatment, transplant recipients have a higher infection risk but, at the same time, can show a poorer response to vaccination. Therefore, the optimal timing and dosing of vaccination is of utmost importance.  We would like to encourage submissions to this Special Issue regarding recent advances in the optimization of the vaccination response in transplant recipients, referring to transplants in the broadest sense of the word. Adding new information on this subject may lead to a better understanding of the critical determinants of an effective immune response to vaccination and may aid in the design of optimal vaccination strategies for transplant recipients.

Prof. Dr. Ger Rijkers
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • transplant recipients
  • vaccination
  • kidney
  • heart
  • lung
  • stem cell transplants
  • safety
  • antibody response
  • efficacy

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 1558 KiB  
Article
Sequential Vaccination Against Streptococcus pneumoniae Appears as Immunologically Safe in Clinically Stable Kidney Transplant Recipients
by Monika Lindemann, Lukas van de Sand, Nils Mülling, Kim L. Völk, Ulrich W. Aufderhorst, Benjamin Wilde, Peter A. Horn, Andreas Kribben, Adalbert Krawczyk, Oliver Witzke and Falko M. Heinemann
Vaccines 2024, 12(11), 1244; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines12111244 - 31 Oct 2024
Viewed by 593
Abstract
Background: Vaccination against Streptococcus pneumoniae is advised for transplant recipients to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with invasive pneumococcal disease. However, data on alloantibodies after sequential vaccination (with a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine followed by a polysaccharide vaccine) are still lacking. Methods: In the [...] Read more.
Background: Vaccination against Streptococcus pneumoniae is advised for transplant recipients to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with invasive pneumococcal disease. However, data on alloantibodies after sequential vaccination (with a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine followed by a polysaccharide vaccine) are still lacking. Methods: In the current study, we determined HLA class I and II and major histocompatibility class I-related chain A (MICA) antibodies in 41 clinically stable kidney transplant recipients. These antibodies were measured prior to and post sequential pneumococcal vaccination over a period of 12 months. Alloantibodies were measured by Luminex bead-based assays, and pneumococcal IgG antibodies were measured by ELISA. Results: Over a 12-month period, the sequential analysis revealed no significant change in alloantibodies. One patient developed de novo donor-specific antibodies (DSA) 1.5 months after the first vaccination, with mean fluorescence intensities of up to 2300. These DSA became undetectable in the follow-up, and the patient showed no signs of allograft rejection. Another patient experienced a biopsy-proven borderline rejection 7 months after the first vaccination but did not develop de novo DSA. Both maintained stable kidney function. As expected, the pneumococcal antibodies increased significantly after vaccination (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Given the overall risk of alloimmune responses in transplant recipients, we would not attribute the two noticeable patient courses to vaccination. Thus, we consider sequential vaccination immunologically safe. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vaccine Efficacy and Safety in Transplant Recipients)
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