Vaccines developed as a result of genomic information are already being tested and the results are hopeful.

Mice have been protected against strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterium commonly causing pneumonia, meningitis and middle ear infections in children. A spin-off of a genome project, the experimental vaccine differs from those currently available. One of the existing preparations is based on carbohydrate antigens, which are notoriously poor immunogens, covering only a narrow spectrum of strains; a protein-based vaccine should be more broadly protective. Of the 110 gene products tested in mouse protection assays, six induced antibodies that prevented sepsis. The six proteins were expressed by most of the strains tested and might provide the backbone for a widely protective vaccine. Furthermore, people who have recovered from S. pneumoniae infections have been shown to have antibodies to these proteins, suggesting the human immune system recognises the proteins as well.

Reported by Alka Agrawal for Academic Press's news pages InScight.
14 March 2001