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

Noémie Lefrancq (1, 2) , Valérie Bouchez (3, 4) , Nadia Fernandes (3) , Alex-Mikael Barkoff (5) , Thijs Bosch (6) , Tine Dalby (7) , Thomas Åkerlund (8) , Jessica Darenberg (8) , Katerina Fabianova (9) , Didrik Vestrheim (10) , Norman Fry (11) , Juan José González-López (12, 13) , Karolina Gullsby (14) , Adele Habington (15) , Qiushui He (5) , David Litt (11) , Helena Martini (16) , Denis Piérard (16) , Paola Stefanelli (17) , Marc Stegger (7) , Jana Zavadilova (9) , Nathalie Armatys (3, 4) , Annie Landier (3, 4) , Sophie Guillot (3, 4) , Samuel Hong (18) , Philippe Lemey (18) , Julian Parkhill (2) , Julie Toubiana (3, 4, 19) , Simon Cauchemez (1) , Henrik Salje (1, 2) , Sylvain Brisse (3, 4)

1 Modélisation mathématique des maladies infectieuses - Mathematical modelling of Infectious Diseases
2 CAM - University of Cambridge [UK]
3 Biodiversité et Epidémiologie des Bactéries pathogènes - Biodiversity and Epidemiology of Bacterial Pathogens
4 CNR - Centre national de Référence de la Coqueluche et autres Bordetelloses - National Reference Center for Whooping Cough and other Bordetella infections
5 University of Turku
6 RIVM - National Institute for Public Health and the Environment [Bilthoven]
7 Statens Serum Institut [Copenhagen]
8 The Public Health Agency of Sweden
9 National Institute of Public Health [Prague]
10 NIPH - Norwegian Institute of Public Health [Oslo]
11 Public Health England [London]
12 Vall d'Hebron University Hospital [Barcelona]
13 UAB - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
14 Uppsala University
15 CHI - Children's Health Ireland [Crumlin, Dublin, Ireland]
16 VUB - Vrije Universiteit Brussel
17 ISS - Istituto Superiore di Sanità
18 Rega Institute
19 Département de Pédiatrie et maladies infectieuses [CHU Necker]

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.

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Bacteriology; Vaccinology

Noémie Lefrancq, Valérie Bouchez, Nadia Fernandes, Alex-Mikael Barkoff, Thijs Bosch, et al.. Global spatial dynamics and vaccine-induced fitness changes of Bordetella pertussis. Science Translational Medicine, 2022, 14 (642), pp.eabn3253. ⟨10.1126/scitranslmed.abn3253⟩. ⟨pasteur-03821663⟩