Modeling the effects of prior infection on vaccine efficacy

Conference · Sat Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:542068

Smith, D J; Forrest, S; Ackley, D H ^[1]; Perelson, A S ^[2]

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1. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States). Dept. of Computer Science
2. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)

We performed computer simulations to study the effects of prior infection on vaccine efficacy. We injected three antigens sequentially. The first antigen, designated the prior, represented a prior infection or vaccination. The second antigen, the vaccine, represented a single component of the trivalent influenza vaccine. The third antigen, the epidemic, represented challenge by an epidemic strain. For a fixed vaccine to epidemic strain cross-reactivities to the vaccine and to the epidemic strains. We found that, for many cross-reactivities, vaccination, when it had been preceded by a prior infection, provided more protection than vaccination alone. However, at some cross-reactivities, the prior infection reduced protection by clearing the vaccine before it had the chance to produce protective memory. The cross-reactivities between the prior, vaccine and epidemic strains played a major role in determining vaccine efficacy. This work has applications to understanding vaccination against viruses such as influenza that are continually mutating.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration, Washington, DC (United States); Office of Naval Research, Washington, DC (United States); National Science Foundation, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 542068
• Report Number(s): LA-UR--97-2618; CONF-971068--; ON: DE98000833; CNN: Contract N00014-95-1-0364; Grant IRI-9157644
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

55 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
BASIC STUDIES
ANTIGENS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
INFLUENZA
MUTATIONS
PERFORMANCE
VACCINES
VIRUSES