A novel prophylactic vaccine and delivery platform to prevent Clostridium difficile infections

艰难梭菌感染(CDI)导致住院患者在接受广谱抗生素治疗后出现严重腹泻。CDI可以用特定的抗生素成功治疗，但多达10名患者中有3名再次发生感染和腹泻，其中平均2名患者将死亡。疫苗可以预防CDI，但目前还没有可用的疫苗。目前正在临床试验的疫苗使用灭活的艰难梭菌毒素来产生免疫反应，但并不是所有的患者都有反应。两家英国公司Absynth和Prokary正在合作开发首个针对CDI的疫苗。该疫苗是基于将已经在临床试验中测试的安全活细菌与新的疫苗抗原相结合，这种疫苗抗原提供了一种无毒素的方法，具有潜在的更广泛的预防疾病的能力。运送到感染地点的疫苗将针对定植细菌，因此感染可以预防，接种疫苗的人不太可能成为无症状携带者。在这个由创新英国支持的项目之后，两家公司希望获得额外的投资，使疫苗进入临床试验

C. difficile infection (CDI) causes severe diarrhoea in hospital patients after treatment with broad-spectrumantibiotics. CDI can be successfully treated with specific antibiotics, but infection and diarrhoea re-occurs in upto 3 out of 10 patients and on average 2 of these will die. A vaccine could prevent CDI but none is currentlyavailable. The vaccines currently in clinical trials use inactive C. difficile toxins to generate an immune responsebut not all patients respond. Two UK companies, Absynth and Prokarium, are collaborating to create the firstoral vaccine against CDI. The vaccine is based on combining a safe living bacterium already tested in clinicaltrials, with novel vaccine antigens that offer a non-toxin based approach with potentially broader protectionagainst disease. The vaccine delivered to the site of infection, will target the colonising bacteria, so infectioncould be prevented and those vaccinated are unlikely to become asymptomatic carriers. After this Innovate UKsupported project, the companies hope to gain additional investment to progress the vaccine into clinicaltrials