INFECTIOUS DISEASES SEMINAR SERIES
Dr. David E. Briles
Departments of Microbiology, Pediatrics and Genetics
The University of Alabama at Birmingham
Topic: “Non-capsular vaccine(s) for Streptococcus pneumoniae: Why and How”
Abstract:
Streptococcus pneumoniae continue to be a major disease burden worldwide in spite of antibiotics and polysaccharide-protein conjugate vaccines that are highly efficacious against pneumococcal disease caused by strains of the capsular types included in the vaccine. Antibiotic treatment can protect against pneumococcal disease if the patient is treated early in the infection, but patients who are close to a fatal event die whether they are treated or not. The only way to protect against death in such cases is by use of an efficacious vaccine. The conjugate vaccines presently available cover no more than 13-15 of the more than 90 known capsular types, but these types were the ones that had caused most of the disease. The conjugate vaccines protect against both colonization and disease caused by strains of capsule types in the vaccine. As a result they have reduced total pneumococcal disease. However, the conjugate vaccines do not affect carriage with the non-vaccine types, which have greatly increased in frequency since vaccine introduction. These non-vaccine types can cause serious bacteremic disease, and many of the non-vaccine types can cause pneumonia, meningitis, and otitis media. Moreover, in individuals highly susceptible to infection, due to underlying conditions or environmental reasons, the non-vaccine types are highly virulent and cause disease as serious as that caused by vaccine types. To resolve these issues and deal with the high cost of conjugate vaccines, other pneumococcal antigens and even whole non-encapsulated killed pneumococci are being tested for their efficacy in man with the hope that a vaccine containing cross-reactive proteins and/or the pneumococcal cell wall polysaccharide may be able to provide protection against all pneumococci. Several of the leading non-capsular antigens, potential vaccine strategies, and the road to licensure in the presence of conjugate vaccines will be discussed.
Light Refreshments will be served!!!
Background
The Centre for Infectious Diseases Research is holding a weekly seminar series. The seminars will be a great opportunity to hear speakers from both within and outside China speaking on a variety of subjects of interest to all those engaged in microbiology/immunology and allied disciplines. The coordinator of the seminar series is Babak Javid, and he would be delighted for fellow faculty to get in touch with regards to possible speakers to invite.
The seminars will also be of great interest to graduate students in life sciences, so we would appreciate PIs encouraging their students and post-docs to attend. By way of encouragement, we will be providing light refreshments to attendees.
If you are interested in meeting with the speaker, please email Babak Javid at bjavid@gmail.com.
We hope that this seminar series will prove to be a valuable addition for both training and scientific dialogue at Tsinghua, and look forward to seeing you there.
Time: 16:00, June 3 (Monday)
Place: Medical Science Building B321, THU
Host: Dr. Jingren Zhang
