Researchers improve safety and effectiveness of new vaccines
Thursday 30th June 2011
A new type of therapeutics known as recombinant attenuated Salmonella vaccines (RASV) look set to combat many fatal infectious diseases.
The list of illnesses the vaccines could potentially target include hepatitis B, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid fever, AIDS and pneumonia.
Researchers at the Biodesign Institutue at Arizona State University have now developed a technique which could make these vaccines not only safer, but more effective.
Existing vaccines are difficult to bring into the developing world for a number of reasons including that heat stabilisation and needle injection are needed - usually impractical for the mass innoculation required in these areas. Additionally, high costs of existing vaccines mean that those who really need them often do not have access.
The findings, published in the Journal of Immunology, revealed that one of the most promising strategies for new vaccine development is to use a pathogen as a vessel to deliver key antigens from the pathogen researchers wish to vaccinate against.
A research team aimed to retain the immunogenicity of an anti-pneumonia RASV while reducing or erasing unwanted side effects which sometimes accompany immunisation with the vaccine, such as fever and intestinal distress.
After being injected with the new Salmonella strain, mice were seen to produce a strong antibody response to pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA), which is responsible for generating antibodies to pneumonia. Therefore, the mice exhibited a greatly improved immunity to wild-type Streptococcus pneumonia compared to those who were inoculated with the Salmonella vaccine without the PspA agent.
Chief scientist Dr Roy Curtiss explained: "Orally-administered RASVs stimulate all three branches of the immune system stimulating mucosal, humoral, and cellular immunity that will be protective, in this case, against a majority of pneumococcal strains causing disease."
Written by Angela Newbury
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