Abstract
THE cholera vaccines now available consist of killed vibrios, and give rise to only limited protection of short duration1. The finding that the excessive diarrhoea in cholera is due to the action on the small intestine epithelium of an exotoxin produced by the vibrios2,3 has focused attention on the potential of toxoid for improved immunoprophylaxis. The development of a suitable toxoid has met with great difficulties, however. Formalin toxoid, although reasonably antigenic, proved unsatisfactory because of reversion to toxicity4. Glutaraldehyde toxoid was stable but poorly immunogenic which explains its low efficacy in a recent field trial5. We describe here the development and properties of a subunit cholera toxoid, the nature of which eliminates the risk of reversion to toxicity. The high protective immunogenicity observed in experimental animals gives promise that addition of this toxoid to the conventional vaccine will result in a significantly improved immunoprophylactic agent against cholera.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Finkelstein, R. A. Crit. Rev. Microbiol. 2, 553–623 (1973).
De, S. N. Nature 183, 1533–1534 (1959).
Dutta, N. K., Panse, M. V. & Kulkarni, D. R. J. Bact. 78, 594–595 (1959).
Northrup, R. S. & Chisari, F. V. J. infect. Dis. 125, 672–673 (1972).
Curlin, G., Levine, R., Aziz, K. M. A., Rahman, M. A. S. M. & Verwey, W. F. Proc. 11th U.S.-Japan Cholera Conf. New Orleans November 1975, 314–329 (US Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Washington, 1975).
Holmgren, J., Lönnroth, I. & Ouchterlony, Ö. Infect. Immun. 3, 747–755 (1971).
Lönnroth, I. & Holmgren, J. J. gen. Microbiol. 76, 417–427 (1973).
Cuatrecasas, P., Parikh, I. & Hollenberg, M. D. Biochemistry 12, 4253–4263 (1973).
van Heyningen, S. Science 183, 656–657 (1974).
Holmgren, J. & Lönnroth, I. J. gen. Microbiol. 86, 49–65 (1975).
Lai, C. Y., Mendez, E. & Chang, D. J. infect. Dis. 133, Suppl. S23–S30 (1976).
Kurosky, A., Markel, D. E., Peterson, J. W. & Fitch, W. M. Science 195, 299–300 (1977).
Holmgren, J. Proc. 9th U.S.-Japan Cholera Conf. Grand Canyon October 1973. US Department of State Publ. 8762, 196–213 (1973).
Holmgren, J., Lindholm, L. & Lönnroth, I. J. exp. Med. 139, 801–819 (1974).
Holmgren, J. & Svennerholm, A. M. J. infect. Dis. 136, Suppl. August (1977).
Finkelstein, R. A., Fujita, K. & LoSpalluto, J. J. J. Immun. 107, 1043–1051 (1971).
Craig, J. Nature 207, 614–616 (1965).
Lönnroth, I. & Lönnroth, C. Expl Cell. Res. 104, 15–24 (1977).
Hanson, L. Å., Holmgren, J. & Wadsworth, C. Int. Arch. Allergy appl. Immun. 40, 806–819 (1971).
Svennerholm, A. M. & Holmgren, J. Infect. Immun. 13, 735–740 (1976).
Rappaport, R. S., Bonde, G., McCann, T., Rubin, B. A. & Tint, H. Infect. Immun. 9, 304–317 (1974).
Holmgren, J. & Svennerholm, A. M. Infect. Immun. 7, 759–763 (1973).
Orskov, F. Orskov, I., Jann, K., Müller-Seitz, E. & Westphal, O. Acta pathol. microbiol. Scand. 71, 339–358 (1976).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
HOLMGREN, J., SVENNERHOLM, AM., LÖNNROTH, I. et al. Development of improved cholera vaccine based on subunit toxoid. Nature 269, 602–604 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/269602a0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/269602a0
This article is cited by
-
Nanoparticle-detained toxins for safe and effective vaccination
Nature Nanotechnology (2013)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.
