Effect of pre-existing anti-tick-borne encephalitis virus immunity on neutralising antibody response to the Vero cell-derived, inactivated Japanese encephalitis virus vaccine candidate IC51

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in Asia with a case fatality rate up to 35% and long-term sequelae up to 75%. This active-controlled, randomized, multi-centre, observer-blind, phase III trial investigated the neutralising antibody response to the new Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccine IC51 in subjects with (N = 81) and without (N = 339) pre-existing tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) vaccine induced antibodies as determined by TBE enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay IgG (ELISA). Neutralising antibody response was statistically superior in TBE ELISA-positive subjects compared to TBE ELISA-negative subjects after the first (p < 0.0001) but not after the second vaccination with IC51. Thus, pre-existing vaccine-induced TBE immunity enhances the neutralising JEV-specific antibody response after a single IC51 vaccination.