Fight Against Infectious Disease Stepped Up With New Salmonella-based 'Clean Vaccines'

The fight against fatal infectious diseases has a powerful new class of therapeutics, known as recombinant attenuated Salmonella vaccines (RASV), that holds great potential in combating fatal diseases including hepatitis B, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid fever, AIDS and pneumonia. Now, Qingke Kong and his colleagues at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, have developed a technique to make such vaccines safer and more effective. The group, under the direction of Dr. Roy Curtiss, chief scientist at Biodesign's Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, demonstrated that a modified strain of Salmonella showed a five-fold reduction in virulence in mice, while preserving strong immunogenic properties.

Their findings appear in the cover story of the current issue of the Journal of Immunology.

Streptococcus pneumoniae, an aerobic bacterium, is the causative agent of diseases including community-acquired pneumonia, otitis media, meningitis, and bacteremia. It remains a leading killer—childhood pneumonia alone causing some 3 million fatalities annually, mostly in poorer countries.

Existing vaccines are inadequate for protecting vulnerable populations for several reasons. Heat stabilization and needle injection are required, which are often impractical for mass inoculation efforts in the developing world. Repeated doses are also needed to induce full immunity. Finally, the prohibitively high costs of existing vaccines often deprive those who need them most. The problem is exacerbated by the recent emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of pneumococcus causing the disease, highlighting the urgency of developing safe, effective, and lower-cost antipneumococcal vaccines.



Source-Eurekalert