UPDATED: Research paving way to salmonella vaccine

Salmonella is a bacteria found in both humans and animals. It causes food poisoning, and infections can be particularly dangerous in children and the elderly. Antibiotics are becoming ineffective against salmonella, and a vaccine could protect against even the resistant forms.

A team of researchers from institutions in the U.S., Europe and Africa, including the Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health, created an array of 2,700 proteins that make up about 60% of all the proteins in the salmonella proteome. They screened the array using antibodies from mice and humans who had had salmonella infections, and found 117 antigens that triggered an immune response in mice. Eight of these were the same as proteins found in Malawian children with salmonella in their bloodstream, and using one, called SseB, as a vaccine protected mice against salmonella infection.

"These antigens will provide the research community with a foundation for developing a protective salmonella vaccine," said Stephen McSorley, an immunologist and associate professor in the University of California Davis Center for Comparative Medicine, which investigates diseases affecting both humans and animals.

There are currently no salmonella vaccines available. And while it is still in very early stages, this research could lead to the basis of an immunization that could prevent some of the 1.4 million salmonella cases seen every year in the U.S.

- read the press release
- check out the abstract

Editor's Note: This story had an error concerning the arrays of antigens, and this has been updated and corrected.