Evaluation of Acute and Convalescent Antibody Concentration Against Pneumococcal Capsular Polysaccharides for the Diagnosis of Pneumococcal Infection in Children with Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Michael J Carter; Sonu Shrestha; Peter O'Reilly; Pallavi Gurung; Meeru Gurung; Stephen Thorson; Rama Kandasamy; Merryn Voysey; Elizabeth O'Mahony; Sarah Kelly; Imran Ansari; Ganesh Shah; Puja Amatya; Irina Tcherniaeva; Guy Berbers; David R Murdoch; Andrew J Pollard; Shrijana Shrestha; Dominic F Kelly; on behalf the PneumoNepal Study Group

doi:10.1097/INF.0000000000004185

Evaluation of Acute and Convalescent Antibody Concentration Against Pneumococcal Capsular Polysaccharides for the Diagnosis of Pneumococcal Infection in Children with Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2024 Feb 1;43(2):e67-e70. doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000004185. Epub 2024 Jan 11.

Authors

Michael J Carter^{1

2

3

4}, Sonu Shrestha^{2

3}, Peter O'Reilly^{2

3}, Pallavi Gurung⁵, Meeru Gurung⁵, Stephen Thorson⁵, Rama Kandasamy^{6

4}, Merryn Voysey^{2

3}, Elizabeth O'Mahony^{2

3}, Sarah Kelly^{2

3}, Imran Ansari⁵, Ganesh Shah⁵, Puja Amatya⁵, Irina Tcherniaeva⁷, Guy Berbers⁷, David R Murdoch⁸, Andrew J Pollard^{2

3}, Shrijana Shrestha⁵, Dominic F Kelly^{2

3}; on behalf the PneumoNepal Study Group

Affiliations

¹ Paediatric Intensive Care, St Mary's Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom.
² Oxford Vaccine Group, Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford.
³ NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford, United Kingdom.
⁴ National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases, Sydney, Australia.
⁵ Pediatric Research Group, Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Patan, Kathmandu, Nepal.
⁶ Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, School of Clinical Medicine, University of New South Wales.
⁷ Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, Netherlands.
⁸ Department of Pathology and Biomedical Science, University of Otago Christchurch, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Abstract

We evaluated whether the quantification of IgG to pneumococcal capsular polysaccharides is an accurate diagnostic test for pneumococcal infection in children with pneumonia in Nepal. Children with pneumococcal pneumonia did not have higher convalescent, or higher fold change, IgG to pneumococcal polysaccharides than children with other causes of pneumonia. Caution is needed in interpreting antibody responses in pneumococcal infections.

MeSH terms

Antibodies, Bacterial* / blood
Bacterial Capsules / immunology
Child
Child, Preschool
Community-Acquired Infections* / diagnosis
Community-Acquired Infections* / immunology
Female
Humans
Immunoglobulin G* / blood
Infant
Male
Nepal
Pneumonia, Pneumococcal* / diagnosis
Pneumonia, Pneumococcal* / immunology
Polysaccharides, Bacterial* / immunology
Streptococcus pneumoniae* / immunology