In 1988, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eradicate wild poliovirus globally. A worldwide vaccination campaign with the trivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (tOPV) was launched by the World Health Organization (WHO). This vaccine contains the three attenuated poliovirus vaccine strains developed by Albert Sabin in the proportion of 10:1:6 for P1, P2, and P3, respectively. These OPV strains have been selected to replicate successfully in the human intestinal tract but not in the cells of the central nervous system. In addition to a strong humoral response, these strains generate strong intestinal immunity (
12). Sabin type 1 is considered to be the most stable of the three attenuated poliovirus serotypes (
19). This strain has 54 mutations compared to the parental Mahoney strain, of which 6 are primarily responsible for attenuation. Sabin type 2 has two major determinants of attenuation, and Sabin type 3 has three determinants of attenuation (
11,
32). Upon replication in the human intestinal tract, the sites of attenuation can mutate, which results in reversion of the Sabin strains toward a parental neurovirulent phenotype. Also as a consequence of replication in the host, antibodies are produced that recognize the antigenic sites of the Sabin strains (
42). This immunogenic pressure could favor the selection of antigenically divergent (AD) viruses with substituted residues in parts of these antigenic sites. AD Sabin viruses might circulate among a population for a long period and evolve into vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs; with differences of >1% from the prototype Sabin viruses in the VP1 region) capable of causing outbreaks. These viruses might escape current diagnostic screening methods, and the risk for generation of these viruses should be reduced as much as possible (
1,
9,
16).
The tOPV vaccination campaigns have been very successful, since the number of countries with endemic wild poliovirus circulation decreased from >125 in 1988 to 4 in 2006, and wild type 2 poliovirus has likely been eradicated since 1999 (
5). The tOPV vaccine, however, is known to be less immunogenic against type 1 and 3 polioviruses. After tOPV administration, the superior replicative capacity of the P2 vaccine strain interferes with effective replication of the other two serotype viruses in the human intestine (
30). To eradicate wild P1 as well, vaccination with monovalent type 1 oral poliovirus vaccine (mOPV1) was introduced in the remaining countries where poliovirus is endemic, since this vaccine is more immunogenic for type 1 than the tOPV (
4,
20).
In line with the recommendations of the WHO Polio Laboratory Network, we determined the antigenic characters of all the viruses shed by the newborns of the Egyptian study by using an intratypic differentiation (ITD) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The outcome of this analysis, an unexpectedly high percentage of AD isolates, prompted further investigation. To determine the possible presence of VDPVs and to gain insight into the genetic and antigenic evolution of the mOPV1 and tOPV isolates shed by the newborns in this study, we determined the sequences of the capsid regions of these isolates. We looked for correlates with antigenic change and rates of mutagenesis in the viruses and compared the evolution rates of the viruses shed by vaccinees of both study groups. We also linked the serological data collected during the study to the excretion of Sabin 1 isolates.
DISCUSSION
This study describes the antigenic and genetic variety of the vaccine viruses shed by newborns participating in a clinical trial in Egypt in 2005 and 2006 to determine the relative efficacy of mOPV1 versus tOPV in newborns (
15). The participants were enrolled in the study immediately after birth and did not participate in routine vaccination activities. Therefore, their initial immunity was provided solely by maternal antibody that could be directly measured, which made possible the comparative evaluation of the immunogenicity of mOPV1 versus tOPV. The average titers of maternal antibodies against P1, P2, and P3 were similar among the newborns of the mOPV1 and tOPV study groups (
15). The superiority of mOPV1 in humoral response was also observed in mucosal response. Priming of newborns with mOPV1 resulted in reduced shedding of vaccine virus compared to priming with tOPV.
Unexpectedly, another finding was that the proportion of AD vaccine viruses shed by the newborns was much higher than that previously observed, especially in the mOPV1 study group. Although it is likely that no strictly comparable study, with a birth dose of mOPV1 in an Egyptian study population and using these methods of virus characterization, has been done, from which an expectation could be derived, it is clear that these rates have not been observed elsewhere in unselected healthy individuals or through the global AFP (acute flaccid paralysis) surveillance activities (
27). The majority of these AD isolates appeared to be derived from the mOPV1 challenge dose provided at the age of 28 days. Replacement of lysine 60 in the VP3 capsid region, as described by previous studies, explains the AD character observed in this study (
3,
42). This residue is located in the loop of antigenic site III and is also involved in the interaction between the virus and the cellular receptor CD155 (
2,
22). This effect was compensated for in one strain by an additional mutation of Ala
59 to valine as shown previously (
42).
Excretion of more AD P1 isolates, coupled with an overall lower rate of shedding, suggests high immunogenic pressure at some of the antigenic sites in the mOPV1 study group. This, however, could not be specifically correlated with antibody titers, and the lack of correlation implies the presence of other parameters that may be more predictive for the shedding of AD P1 isolates.
In both study groups, the majority of the AD P1 isolates were shed by newborns who did not seroconvert to P1 after the birth dose (mOPV1 or tOPV). The majority of these newborns in the tOPV study group (88%), however, did seroconvert to P2 and/or P3 after the birth dose, indicating replication of P2 and P3 in the gut prior to the mOPV1 challenge dose (Table
4). Interference between these replicating P2 and P3 strains and the mOPV1 challenge strain might result in a more limited and less widespread replication of P1 within the tOPV study group and possibly in a lower likelihood of AD P1 isolates than within the mOPV1 study group (
3). The amounts of P1 virus in the stool samples could be quantified in order to study the replication of P1 viruses in both study groups.
VDPVs are presently defined as viruses with more than 1% sequence difference in the VP1 gene, compared to the corresponding OPV strain. This degree of sequence variation has been equated to approximately 1 year of replication after infection and, by inference, also after the administration of an OPV dose (
28). This period is considerably longer than the 4- to 6-week excretion period of the immunocompetent vaccinees of this study (
8). In the present study, the mean overall VP1 synonymous- and nonsynonymous-mutation rates are severalfold higher than those reported previously from circulating viruses or those in immunodeficient patients (
18,
25,
26,
28,
31,
42,
43). It has been reported previously that rapid reversion of attenuating amino acids in the capsid region can occur in primary vaccinees (
14); however, the overall rate of mutations in a large study using molecular characterization by genomic sequencing of a large number of isolates has only rarely been determined.
Isolates with mutations at residue 99 had nonsynonymous-mutation rates ∼3 times higher than those of isolates without this mutation and were inclined to have an AD character, whereas P1 isolates with Thr
106 did not have significantly more nonsynonymous changes than isolates without this mutation. Previous studies have shown that residue 99, which forms a trypsin cleavage site in antigenic site I of the Sabin virus, is a hot spot for change in the VP1 region of VDPVs (
10,
13,
17,
19,
23,
24,
28,
29,
34,
42,
43). It is not clear what role mutation of residue 99 could play in the evolution of VDPVs. The observation of a much faster accumulation of nonsynonymous mutations shortly after vaccination in this study should be considered in estimating the duration of replication or circulation of Sabin viruses and VDPVs. The difference in the age and dose of origin for P1 virus shedding complicates the comparison of mutation rates between the different groups. The limited number of children shedding at each time point also limits the determination of difference between intervals and rates of mutation. These study design differences and observed rates may influence differences in the nonsynonymous/synonymous mutation ratios at the different time points and should be kept in mind when these ratios are compared. Regardless, these observations imply that VDPVs analyzed in the past might not be as old as expected.
It should be noted that the P2 VDPV observed in this study was not detected by the current WHO-recommended screening algorithm for VDPVs and was detected only by sequencing of the complete VP1 gene. This finding reiterates the need for new assays for the rapid screening of P2 (and P3) OPV isolates for VDPV detection. The present WHO-recommended VDPV screening methods still detect all known VDPVs of serotype 1.
There are some limitations in this study. The degree to which the study participants would be exposed to poliovirus through family or community contacts during the 8-week study period was unknown at the start of the study. This would have the effect of reducing the specificity of the measured outcomes that could be attributed to the study vaccines. Somewhat surprisingly, 52 newborns vaccinated with mOPV1 at birth seroconverted to P2 and/or P3 during their first month, indicating significant exposure of the study participants to P2 and P3 vaccine strains through their environments. Alternatively, some of these children may represent false-positive seroconversions because of the method of determining seroconversion relative to a projected decay of maternal antibody (
15). As noted in Table
4, there were also 11 children whose dose-specific seroconversion could not be determined. On the basis of previous studies, the proportion of misclassification due to these factors is expected to be small but could not be verified within this study design. Because of these observations, we cannot entirely rule out the possibility that some of the AD viruses isolated from the mOPV1 group were secondary infections, but the rates of AD isolates were much higher than the numbers of P2/P3 isolates observed. The significant difference in the proportion of AD P1 isolates shed between the mOPV1 and tOPV study groups, however, cannot be easily ascribed to the circulation of P1 in the environment, because newborns of both groups should have been equally likely to come into contact with environmentally derived P1 isolates, and the proportion of AD P1 viruses would be expected to be no higher than the ∼5% observed in AFP surveillance.
Another limitation in the study design is the limited number of stool specimens following the birth dose compared to the more frequent sampling following the challenge dose. As noted previously, this almost ensures that the rate of shedding from the birth dose is underestimated compared to that the challenge dose. In addition, it makes the two groups of children inherently noncomparable for a variety of factors. Even though many of these can be addressed directly, by subdividing groups as presented, absolute specificity cannot be ensured. These limitations, however, do not seem to negate the primary conclusions of the study, even if the explanation of the causation is ambiguous.
In summary, this study shows the reduced shedding of mOPV1 challenge virus associated with seroconversion to a birth dose of mOPV1 compared to a comparable dose of tOPV. Unexpectedly, however, vaccination with mOPV1 at birth results in the excretion of a significantly higher proportion of AD P1 viruses, possibly due to antigenic pressure and a longer and more widespread replication of P1 viruses than occurs in the presence of heterologous strains in the case of vaccination with tOPV. In the mOPV1 study group, more isolates with mutations of VP1 amino acid residue 99 occurred, which resulted in a significant increase in additional nonsynonymous mutations. It is uncertain what role this could play in the evolution of VDPVs, but it does suggest the possibility of additional studies of this population. Results from this study, however, also showed that newborns vaccinated with mOPV1 at birth were better protected against P1 and had a clearly lower excretion rate of Sabin viruses after the challenge dose than newborns vaccinated with tOPV at birth. In turn, a high mucosal protection against P1 reduces shedding of vaccine-derived P1 and therefore reduces the risk for transmission and evolution of VDPVs. In areas with good vaccination coverage and thus a high level of mucosal protection, transmission of vaccine virus is expected to be minimal and vaccination with mOPV1 could be very effective in eradicating the last polioviruses of type 1. In areas with low vaccination coverage and a high number of susceptible individuals, vaccination with mOPV1 could potentially lead to transmission of AD P1 isolates like those observed in this study and could possibly increase the risk for the development of VDPVs. However, until now, regular surveillance activities (based on AFP and environmental surveillance) have not provided evidence for a contribution of vaccination with mOPV1 to the evolution and circulation of VDPVs in Egypt after this study or in countries where mOPV1 has been used for several years already (Nigeria, India) (
6,
7). This study describes accelerated genetic and antigenic changes observed following vaccination of newborns and may provide some insight into the earliest steps in the process of the generation of VDPVs.