Effective Vaccination Method Discovered
Posted on: Monday, 18 September 2006, 15:00 CDT
An effective way to vaccinate against infection by the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis in mice has been reported by U.S. scientists.
Egil Lien and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Medical School say they have taken advantage of the fact that bacteria such as Y. pestis -- a scourge of humans for hundreds of years -- have a coat of protein and fatty sugars.
While the coats of some bacteria normally stimulate mammalian immune cells well, whereas others, such as those of Y. pestis, do not. That, say the researchers, allows them to evade or suppress the innate immune response of the host.
Lien and his colleagues engineered a Y. pestis strain with a coat that stimulates immune cells in mice, and show that mice can survive infection with the engineered strain. The surviving mice also appear to be protected from subsequent infection with normal, otherwise deadly, Y. pestis.
The results, say the scientists, suggest immune stealth might be critical for normal Y. pestis to cause serious infection.
The study is detailed in the October issues of the journal nature Immunology.
Source: United Press International
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