{"doi":"10.1101/2025.04.03.25324959","title":"Age-specific immunity to rotavirus infection and the risk of disease before and after rotavirus vaccine introduction in the United Kingdom: an observational, seroepidemiological study","abstract":"Background: Infant rotavirus vaccination was introduced in the UK in July 2013, and was followed by a rapid reduction in rotavirus disease. We compare immunity to rotavirus in sera of age-stratified cohorts to assess the effect of vaccination on natural exposure to rotavirus. Methods: Residual serum samples were selected from a reference laboratory biobank based on age, and year of collection. Anti-rotavirus Immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgA antibodies were measured using ELISA. We used censored linear spline regression models and anti-rotavirus IgA correlate of protection (CoP) thresholds to estimate immunity by age and vaccine eligibility (defined by date of birth). Results: We analysed serum from 1,200 individuals obtained between 2000 and 2019, of which 807 were vaccine-ineligible and 393 were vaccine-eligible. Among infants aged 3-11 months, a seven-fold increase in IgG levels was observed in the vaccine-eligible cohort (Geometric Mean Concentration [GMC], 1388.67 U/mL; 95% confidence interval [CI], 675.03-2856.78) compared to the vaccine-ineligible cohort (GMC, 198.54 U/ml; 95% CI, 71.31-552.78). Models showed increasing IgG and IgA antibody concentrations in the vaccine-ineligible cohort through childhood and into adulthood, but not in the vaccine-eligible cohort. The proportion of children <7 years with IgA≥160 U/ml, a proxy CoP against rotavirus disease, was lower among the vaccine-eligible population (adjusted odds ratio, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.48-0.91). Conclusions: The introduction of rotavirus vaccination has reduced rotavirus disease burden but has disrupted the subsequent acquisition of naturally-acquired immunity. The impact of this on susceptibility to rotavirus disease in later life remains to be determined.","journal":"medRxiv","year":2025,"id":557471,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8938,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":226287,"name":"Virginia E. Pitzer","orcid":"0000-0003-1015-2289","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":324148,"name":"Khuzwayo C. Jere","orcid":"0000-0003-3376-8529","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":324155,"name":"Marc Henrion","orcid":"0000-0003-1242-839X","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":324149,"name":"Jonathan Mandolo","orcid":"0000-0003-0143-7469","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1457669,"name":"Catherine Beavis","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1308282,"name":"Karen M. Ryan","orcid":"0000-0002-9264-8757","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1457670,"name":"Jenna Lowe","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":484517,"name":"Nigel A. Cunliffe","orcid":"0000-0002-5449-4988","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":252334,"name":"Neil French","orcid":"0000-0003-4814-8293","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":484516,"name":"Miren Iturriza‐Gómara","orcid":"0000-0001-5816-6423","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":484514,"name":"Daniel Hungerford","orcid":"0000-0002-9770-0163","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":29,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:55:17.435961Z","pmid":"40236427","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}