Replies to post #221142 on Biotech Values

[Biowatch]

Hepatitis B vaccine non-responders

If you have Hep B, you might not respond to the vaccine:
http://www.hepb.org/prevention-and-diagnosis/vaccination/vaccine-non-responders/

Vaccine Non-Responders

A hepatitis B vaccine “non-responder" refers to a person who does not develop protective surface antibodies after completing two full series of the hepatitis B vaccine and for whom an acute or chronic hepatitis B infection has been ruled out.

Although the majority of persons vaccinated against hepatitis B successfully respond to vaccination, an estimated 5-15% of persons may not respond due to older age, obesity, smoking, and other chronic illness.

It is also possible that a person who does not respond to the vaccine may already be infected with hepatitis B. Therefore, testing for the presence of the hepatitis B virus (hepatitis B surface antigen or HBsAg) is recommended before diagnosing a person as a "vaccine non-responder."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4621464/

NON-RESPONDERS

Despite the high efficacy of the HBV vaccine, nearly 5% of immunocompetent individuals fail to respond to the primary HBV series. The reason for this non-response is not clear, however certain populations are at high risk including those with genetic predisposition, chronic disease, and immunomodulatory medications. Some interesting observations have been made in these populations. There may be a genetic predisposition for non-response. The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) along with MHC-II plays an important role in presentation of the viral peptides to CD-4 T-helper cells and subjects who fail to respond may have a defect in the antigen presentation or the stimulation of T-helper cells. Studies have shown that patients who are homozygous for HLA DRB1*0301, HLA-B8, SC01, DR-3, HLAB44, FC-31, DR-7 have an increased predisposition to non-responsiveness[20,21]. Patients with advanced age, chronic diseases, immune defects or on immunomodulatory medications have a blunted immune response.

Non-responders to the three vaccine series may respond to further vaccinations
[although it's hard enough getting everybody to get an entire three vaccination series, let alone follow-up testing for response and further dosing.]:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X07012273

Low dose revaccination induces robust protective anti-HBs antibody response in the majority of healthy non-responder neonates

Summary
A sizeable proportion (1–10%) of healthy adults and to lesser extent neonates vaccinated with triple 10 µg hepatitis B (HB) vaccine fail to mount a protective antibody response. Revaccination with the same vaccine dose has proved to be effective in a significant number of primary non-responders. The influence of revaccination with lower vaccine doses however has not been studied adequately in non-responder neonates. This study was conducted to evaluate the influence of supplementary vaccination with a single low and standard dose of a recombinant hepatitis B (HB) vaccine in healthy Iranian non-responder neonates to primary vaccination.