Early Rotavirus Vaccination Increase Protection

The peer-reviewed journal The Lancet published a rotavirus vaccine study on January 20, 2022 that found neonatal administration of the RV3-BB vaccine has the potential to improve protection against rotavirus disease in children in a high-child mortality country in Africa.

This study concluded the RV3-BB with the P[6] genotype was well tolerated and immunogenic when co-administered with Expanded Programme on Immunisation vaccines in a neonatal or infant schedule.

And a lower titre (mid-titre) vaccine generated similar IgA seroconversion to the high-titre vaccine.

This new study builds on data from a phase 2b trial in Indonesian infants, where three doses of the RV3-BB vaccine administered in the neonatal schedule were associated with a 94% protective efficacy against severe rotavirus disease at 12 months and 75% at 18 months of age.

There are potential advantages for a neonatal administration schedule for a rotavirus vaccine, such as an opportunity to reduce vaccine costs.

Furthermore, a dose of an oral rotavirus vaccine at birth provides the earliest opportunity to stimulate the developing mucosal immune system to protect against subsequent exposure to wild-type rotavirus.

And the use of an asymptomatic human neonatal rotavirus strain that binds to specific receptors in the neonatal gut avoids the potential risk of vaccine-associated diarrhea or liver dysfunction.

In the U.S., the CDC says about 70% of children can be protected from rotavirus disease of any severity. Two rotavirus vaccines are currently licensed for infants in the United States:

• RotaTeq® is given in three doses at ages 2 months, 4 months, and 6 months
• Rotarix® is offered in two doses at ages 2 months and 4 months

This study was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and an Australian Tropical Medicine Commercialisation Grant.

In 1973, a team at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) led by Professor Ruth Bishop discovered rotavirus as a causative agent of severe dehydrating gastroenteritis. The MCRI holds the license for the RV3-BB vaccine.

A licensing agreement with Changchun Zhuoyi Biological was initiated in June 2019 to make, manufacture and sell RV3-BB.