Hope for millions

A new generation of salmonella-based, single dose vaccine candidates to fight infant pneumonia

Infectious disease causes 35 percent of deaths worldwide, and is the world’s biggest killer of children and young adults. Among them is bacterial pneumonia, a prodigious killer causing more than 2 million annual fatalities worldwide.

Now, an international team led by ASU Professor Roy Curtiss hopes to turn a foe into a friend by enlisting Salmonella, the leading cause of food poisoning, in the fight against bacterial pneumonia. In June 2005, Dr. Curtiss received a $14.8 award (Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative) to develop an anti-pneumonia vaccine in newborns.

The project team has curbed Salmonella’s appetite for infection and used it as a delivery vehicle that hosts a suite of key antigens—surface proteins of Streptococcus pneumoniae, the causative agent of bacterial pneumonia. In the body, such antigens stimulate an immune response, but the additional pathogenic ingredients necessary to cause the disease are absent. Such next-generation vaccine candidates offer new promise in the battle against S. pneumoniae.

In addition to triggering a powerful, protective immune response, Salmonella-based vaccines offer an inexpensive alternative which may be administered orally in a single dose and requires no needles or refrigeration—a significant advantage in the developing world.

An initial version of the new vaccine is slated to begin the first pre-clinical trials in human subjects.