Global spatial dynamics and vaccine-induced fitness changes of Bordetella pertussis

Noemie Lefrancq, Valerie Bouchez, Nadia Fernandes, Alex Mikael Barkoff, Thijs Bosch, Tine Dalby, Thomas Akerlund, Jessica Darenberg, Katerina Fabianova, Didrik F. Vestrheim, Norman K. Fry, Juan Jose Gonzalez-Lopez, Karolina Gullsby, Adele Habington, Qiushui He, David Litt, Helena Martini, Denis Pierard, Paola Stefanelli, Marc SteggerJana Zavadilova, Nathalie Armatys, Annie Landier, Sophie Guillot, Samuel L. Hong, Philippe Lemey, Julian Parkhill, Julie Toubiana, Simon Cauchemez, Henrik Salje*, Sylvain Brisse*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

As with other pathogens, competitive interactions between Bordetella pertussis strains drive infection risk. Vaccines are thought to perturb strain diversity through shifts in immune pressures; however, this has rarely been measured because of inadequate data and analytical tools. We used 3344 sequences from 23 countries to show that, on average, there are 28.1 transmission chains circulating within a subnational region, with the number of chains strongly associated with host population size. It took 5 to 10 years for B. pertussis to be homogeneously distributed throughout Europe, with the same time frame required for the United States. Increased fitness of pertactin-deficient strains after implementation of acellular vaccines, but reduced fitness otherwise, can explain long-term genotype dynamics. These findings highlight the role of vaccine policy in shifting local diversity of a pathogen that is responsible for 160,000 deaths annually.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbereabn3253
JournalScience Translational Medicine
Volume14
Issue number642
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27 Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information: No funding information.

Open Access: No Open Access licence.

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved.

Citation: Lefrancq, Noémie, et al. "Global spatial dynamics and vaccine-induced fitness changes of Bordetella pertussis." Science Translational Medicine 14.642 (2022): eabn3253.

DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abn3253

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