Immunogenicity of 7-Valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in Lung Fluid of Adults With and Without HIV Infection

We tested the hypothesis that conjugate vaccine offered less protection against pneumonia due to a reduced mucosal response compared to serum. We further hypothesized that this response would be further compromised with HIV co-infection[32] due to lack of local CD4 lymphocyte support and an altered alveolar milieu. We measured pneumococcal capsular specific immunoglobulin responses to 7-valent conjugate vaccine in both lung fluid and serum from healthy HIV infected and uninfected volunteers, together with flow cytometric assessment of the relative numbers and phenotypes of BAL T lymphocyte, B lymphocyte and macrophages.