Promises and pitfalls of Pseudomonas aeruginosa lipopolysaccharide as a vaccine antigen

Carbohydr Res. 2003 Nov 14;338(23):2549-56. doi: 10.1016/s0008-6215(03)00312-4.

Abstract

Antibodies directed to the Pseudomonas aeruginosa lipopolysaccharide (LPS) O-antigens have clearly shown to mediate the most effective immunity to infection caused by LPS-smooth strains. Such strains are major causes of disease in immunocompromised hosts such as burn or cancer patients, individuals in intensive care units, and those who utilize extended-wear contact lenses. Yet producing an effective vaccine composed of non-toxic, immunogenic polysaccharides has been challenging. The chemical diversity among the different O-antigens representative of the 20 major serotypes, plus additional diversity among some O-antigens representing variant subtype antigens, translates into a large degree of serologic variability that increases the complexity of O-antigen specific vaccines. Further complications come from the poor immunogenicity of the major protective epitope expressed by some O-antigens, and a large degree of diversity in animal responses that preclude predicting the optimal vaccine formulation from such studies. Nonetheless human trials over the years of vaccines eliciting O-antigen immunity have been encouraging, though no vaccine has yet been fully evaluated and found to be clinically efficacious. Newer vaccine approaches such as using polysaccharide-protein conjugates and passive therapy with monoclonal or polyclonal immune sera offer some additional means to try and produce an effective immunotherapeutic reagent for this problematic pathogen.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Antibodies, Monoclonal / chemistry
  • Antigens, Bacterial / chemistry*
  • Carbohydrate Sequence
  • Clinical Trials as Topic
  • Epitopes
  • Humans
  • Immunochemistry
  • Lipopolysaccharides / chemistry*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • O Antigens / chemistry
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa / metabolism*
  • Vaccines*

Substances

  • Antibodies, Monoclonal
  • Antigens, Bacterial
  • Epitopes
  • Lipopolysaccharides
  • O Antigens
  • Vaccines