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ARTICLE | Translation in Brief

Not your typical vaccine

T cell response as the basis for a vaccine against non-typeable H. influenzae

August 15, 2018 4:31 PM UTC

In a July paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Mississippi Medical Center researchers and colleagues identified conserved proteins in non-typeable Haemophilius influenzae that activate T cell responses to the bacteria, offering a route to developing a universal vaccine against the infection.

H. influenzae falls into two main categories: one encompassing the A through F subtypes that contain a polysaccharide capsule; and the other encompassing non-typeable H. influenzae (NTHi) strains, which lack a capsule. Most vaccines in development have targeted type B, which is the most virulent, using conserved capsule antigens to elicit antibody responses. While NTHi is a major cause of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations, vaccine development has been stymied by NTHi’s lack of a capsule, as well as the large variation in surface proteins between strains...

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