Humoral responses to oxidized low-density lipoprotein and related bacterial antigens after pneumococcal vaccine

Antibodies to oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) may modulate the development of atherosclerosis. Antibodies to oxLDL may also react with cell wall polysaccharides (CWPS) of Streptococcus pneumoniae because both antigens share a common phosphorylcholine moiety. In hypercholesteremic mice, immunization with pneumococcal organisms elicited antibodies to oxLDL and protection against atherosclerosis. In humans, we determined whether the widely used adult pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine augmented antibodies to oxLDL, CWPS, and phosphorylcholine, providing the potential to retard atherogenesis. Before and 4 weeks after pneumococcal vaccination of 23 healthy adults (11 smokers and 12 matched nonsmokers), we characterized IgG, IgM, and IgA to pneumococcal capsular polysaccharides, CWPS, and phosphorylcholine, IgG and IgM to oxLDL, and fasting serum lipids. The pneumococcal vaccine elicited significant increases in each antibody class to surface capsular polysaccharides. In contrast, only IgG to CWPS increased modestly and only among smokers. Moreover, antibodies to neither phosphorylcholine nor oxLDL increased consistently in either group. The pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine effectively elicits antibodies to the bacterial capsule. The vaccine had no effect on serum lipids. The vaccine did not augment antibodies to CWPS, to its component phosphorylcholine, or to oxLDL, which are antibodies that have been proposed to modify the uptake of oxLDL by macrophages and the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.