Different kinetics of circulating antibody-secreting cell responses after primary and booster oral immunizations: A tool for assessing immunological memory

• The detailed kinetics of ASC responses to an oral cholera vaccine was analyzed.
• The ASC response kinetics differs considerably after primary and booster vaccination.
• ASC responses determined 7 days after booster vaccination may be underestimated.
• Detection of early ASC responses may be used as a tool to assess immunological memory.

We show that the kinetics of circulating IgA as well as IgG antibody-secreting cell (ASC) responses differs considerably after primary and booster vaccination with the oral cholera vaccine Dukoral®, as determined by the antibody in lymphocyte supernatant (ALS) as well as ELISPOT methods. Thus, whereas the antitoxin ASC responses did not peak until 7–9 days after primary vaccination, peak responses to a second dose given after two weeks, or a single booster dose given 6 months to 14 years later, were recorded already after 4–5 days and then rapidly declined. Our results indicate that many previous studies reporting ASC results 7–10 days after repeated immunization may have substantially underestimated the magnitudes of the responses. The results also suggest that detection of peak ASC responses at an early time point after booster immunization can be used as a simple tool to assess immunological memory.