An inhaled vaccine can defeat antibiotic-resistant pathogens

Researchers from Tulane University (USA) managed to cope with the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae using a new type of vaccine – inhalation. It is designed specifically for such cases, since this bacterium threatens the development of pneumonia. If the drug is delivered directly to the lungs, and not administered intravenously, this significantly accelerates the formation of an immune response. Klebsiella pneumoniae belongs to the so-called “hospital species”, it thrives mainly in medical institutions. The bacterium has been in contact with different types of drugs for so long that it has acquired resistance to all types of antibiotics. Previously, it affected only weakened patients, provoking pneumonia and bloodstream infections, but now hypervirulent strains have begun to appear, which spread outside hospitals.

Tulane doctors combined the K. Rpeimopia protein with an adjuvant of the LTA1 vaccine obtained from E. coli. This combination provokes the active growth of CD4 + T cells, B cells and Th17 cells, which generates a powerful immune response. The fight against Klebsiella pneumoniae begins almost immediately, and the new vaccine in experiments on mice defeated three different strains of the bacterium at once. But the main advantage of the new product is that it is not tied specifically to Klebsiella pneumoniae or any other individual pathogen. This is a kind of universal remedy and there is every chance that the vaccine will cope even with pneumococcus. Moreover, the authors of the study believe that it is inhaled and intranasal drugs that will become a new “lifesaver” in the fight against pathogens resistant to aging antibiotics.