Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston have developed experimental vaccine strategies that protected mice against pneumonic plague, one of the deadliest forms of the disease, even when the animals lacked an immune system protein long thought essential for fighting bacterial infections.

Breakthrough in Vaccine Development

The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, challenges decades of assumptions about how the body defends itself against plague and could shape the design of future vaccines. Pneumonic plague is a fast-moving, severe lung infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, the same pathogen behind the Black Death.

The disease is rare in the modern world, but it has not disappeared. Cases still occur in parts of Africa, Asia, and the Americas, including occasional cases in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports an average of seven U.S. cases annually in recent decades.

According to Dr. Ashok Chopra, a professor and John S. Dunn Distinguished Chair in Global Health in UTMB’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology, who led the research, “Our findings show these vaccines generate a remarkably broad immune response. Even without interferon-gamma, which has long been considered one of the immune system’s most important antibacterial defenses, vaccinated animals remained protected from lethal pneumonic plague.”

The researchers tested the vaccines against several strains of Y. pestis, including strains lacking one of the bacterial proteins targeted by earlier vaccine approaches. The vaccines protected against those strains, too, suggesting the approach could work against naturally occurring variation and potential engineered variants.

Original reporting: The Dallas Express — read the source article.