A new vaccine can prevent dangerous infections among infants and their mothers. A vaccine against group B streptococcus (GBS) - which causes severe infections in nearly two 1,000 newborns and kills about 10% of infected people - triggered the production of antibodies against the bacteria in tests clinical
vaccines work. by exposing the body to a lure representing an infectious agent, so that when the real pathogen comes along the body will see a resemblance and mount an attack. The recognizable part of GBS is a complex sugar coating, which immunizes only about 60% of people. To make a vaccine that can protect most of the rest, infectious disease expert Dennis Kasper and colleagues at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston used a relatively new technique to connect the complex sugar tetanus toxoid, a protein known to elicit a strong immune response.
conjugate vaccine seems to do the trick, triggering levels of protective antibodies in 54 of the 60 women tested, with no serious side effects. The killed GBS antibodies in the test tube, and, at least in mice, were able to cross the placenta and fetus immunize. After Kasper researchers injected pregnant mice with antibodies from immunized women, mouse gave birth to puppies immune to GBS. "The characteristics of the antibody were what we expected, '' said Kasper, who with Carol Baker of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in detail the clinical trial in the latest issue of Journal of Clinical Investigation .
conjugate vaccine is the first demonstrated both safe and effective, said Pamela McInnes, project manager for the Initiative streptococci group B at the National Institute of allergy and infectious diseases . More human trials are needed, especially to see if the vaccine is safe for pregnant women McInnes said the vaccine also offers the promise to reduce the number of reproductive age women carrying GBS - now estimated at 10 .. % to 30% of the search can now, she said, "with a more clinical approach and with real hope for prevention. ''
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