Maternal antibody inhibits both cellular and humoral immunity in response to measles vaccination at birth

Maternal antibody prevents the use of live, attenuated measles vaccine (LAV) before 6–9 months of age, but vaccinated 6-month-old infants can mount a T cell response. An infant macaque model was used to study the immune response to LAV in the newborn in the presence or absence of maternal antibody. Four newborn monkeys without detectable maternal antibody and 9 newborns with passive measles antibody were vaccinated with LAV. Only the infants without passive antibody seroconverted after vaccination and 3 of 4 of these infants also developed measles-specific interferon γ+ T cells. The monkeys were challenged with wild-type measles virus at 5 months of age, and 7 of 9 infants vaccinated in the presence of passive antibody had systemic infection and skin rash, while 3 of the 4 infants vaccinated in the absence of passive antibody were protected from viremia and rash. This suggests that the newborn can respond to LAV but that maternal antibody suppresses the priming of both humoral and cellular immunity at birth.