A newer vaccine against hepatitis B virus was clearly superior to an older vaccine type in inducing a protective antibody response among people living with HIV who didn't respond to prior vaccination, according to the results of an international study led by a Weill Cornell Medicine investigator.
The study, reported Dec. 1 in JAMA, showed that hepatitis B vaccine with a cytosine phosphoguanine adjuvant, known as HepB-CpG, (trade name Heplisav-B) induced protective levels of antibodies in up to 99.4% of the subjects who received it. Such protection was seen in only 80.6% of subjects who received hepatitis B vaccine with an aluminum hydroxide adjuvant, known as HepB-alum, (trade name Engerix-B).
"These results suggest a potential path forward for the large number of people living with HIV who can't get protection from older hepatitis B vaccines," said study corresponding author Dr. Kristen Marks, an associate professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and an infectious disease specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.-science daily