New Pertussis Vaccines: A Need and a Challenge.

New Pertussis Vaccines: A Need and a Challenge. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2019 Aug 21;: Authors: Hozbor D Abstract Effective diphtheria, tetanus toxoids, whole-cell pertussis (wP) vaccines were used for massive immunization in the 1950s. The broad use of these vaccines significantly reduced the morbidity and mortality associated with pertussis. Because of reports on the induction of adverse reactions, less-reactogenic acellular vaccines (aP) were later developed and in many countries, especially the industrialized ones, the use of wP was changed to aP. For many years, the situation of pertussis seemed to be controlled with the use of these vaccines, however in the last decades the number of pertussis cases increased in several countries. The loss of the immunity conferred by the vaccines, which is faster in the individuals vaccinated with the acellular vaccines, and the evolution of the pathogen towards geno/phenotypes that escape more easily the immunity conferred by the vaccines were proposed as the main causes of the disease resurgence. According to their composition of few immunogens, the aP vaccines seem to be exerting a greater selection pressure on the circulating bacterial population causing the prevalence of bacterial isolates defective in the expression of vaccine antigens. Under this context, it is clear that new vaccines against pertussis should be developed. Several vaccine candidates are in preclinical development and few other...
Source: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology - Category: Research Tags: Adv Exp Med Biol Source Type: research