Impact of pneumococcal vaccine response on asthma exacerbation frequency in young children

INTRODUCTION: Chronic asthma is a heterogeneous disease, and increased eosinophils have been shown to predict increased asthma exacerbations, especially in adults. Recent recommendations suggest the need for supplemental PPV‐23 vaccination in older children with chronic asthma. METHODS: To investigate differences in preschool asthma, our case‐cohort study comprised of 127 children, mean age 47 months (32‐65), with a history of asthma exacerbations requiring more than three courses of systemic steroid bursts and more than six antibiotics courses in the previous year. RESULTS: At baseline, mean antibody titer response to Streptococcus pneumoniae was decreased at 2.6 ± 2 out of 14 serotypes, despite prior complete pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) vaccinations. All children were readministered pneumococcal vaccinations with PCV‐13 booster and/or PPSV‐23. Mean postvaccination pneumococcal vaccine (PV) titer response was 16 ± 5 out of 23 serotypes. After contacting 91 parents/caretakers, 75 responded with less frequency of corticosteroids and antibiotic use for asthma exacerbations after PV. This group had baseline eosinophil counts of 211 ± 36/µL, while those without improvement were significantly higher at 371 ± 123/µL,*P < .05. There were no significant differences (P > .05) between the two groups from other baseline measures including demography or atopic status. CONCLUSIONS: This subset of children with exacerbation‐prone asthma had poor antibody titer response to Streptococcus pneumoniae, even with prior complete PCV‐13 immunization. Identification of low antibody responses to PV serotypes may provide a targeted therapeutic approach to reduce wheezing exacerbations in a precise asthma phenotype in children.