Evaluation of immune response to single dose of quadrivalent HPV vaccine at 10-year post-vaccination

Scientists from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and partner institutions have demonstrated the high and durable immune response in women and girls who received a single dose of vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV) at 10 years after vaccination. The results were published as part of a new study in the journal Vaccine.

The researchers examined blood samples from more than 1000 girls and women in India, consisting of study participants who had received one, two, or three doses of HPV vaccine and randomly selected unvaccinated women. The study, which used two independent technologies to assess antibody response, compared the 10-year durability of immune response induced by a single dose with that induced after three doses of the vaccine and with the immune response in unvaccinated married women.

The antibody levels induced by a single dose were found to be much lower than those after administration of two or three doses. However, protection is not compromised because the amount of antibody remains adequate to neutralize the virus. The immunogenicity of a single dose was found to remain high even 10 years after vaccination, and antibody trends suggest that the titres are very unlikely to wane even after a subsequent 5–10 years, for a total of 15–20 years after vaccination.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently recommended supporting a single-dose schedule for HPV vaccination. The durability of protection offered by a single dose is a key consideration when considering adoption of this new dose recommendation. Switching from two doses of HPV vaccine to one dose would significantly reduce costs, improve affordability and supply, and simplify the logistics of vaccination programmes, thus enabling more low- and middle-income countries to introduce HPV vaccination.

Joshi S, Anantharaman D, Muwonge R, Bhatla N, Panicker G, Butt J, et al.
Evaluation of immune response to single dose of quadrivalent HPV vaccine at 10-year post-vaccination
Vaccine, Published online 26 November 2022;
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.11.044

Read the article 

View the graphical abstract