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A conjugate vaccine is a substance that is composed of a polysaccharide antigen fused (conjugated) to a carrier molecule. This enhances the stability and the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Poly-β-(1–6)-N-acetylglucosamine (PNAG) is an important vaccine target, but the impact of the number and position of free amine vs N-acetylation on its antigenicity is not well understood. Here, the authors report a divergent strategy to synthesize a comprehensive library of PNAG pentasaccharides, enabling the identification of enhanced epitopes for vaccines against Staphylococcus aureus including drug resistant strains.
Ravichandran et al. performed a systems immunology study to profile the responses to pneumococcal vaccines in older adults. They identified distinct baseline features that could capture responses to Prevnar and Pneumovax and sex-biased differences in Prevnar responses.
The effectiveness of pneumococcal vaccines declines with age for unknown reasons. We studied the responses of older adults to the 23-valent PPSV23 and the 13-valent PCV13, identifying distinct baseline immune characteristics associated with vaccine responsiveness, including a cytotoxicity signature associated with weaker responses to PCV13.
A vaccine platform developed from a synthetic polymeric glyco-adjuvant and reversibly conjugated to an antigen was shown to target dendritic cells leading to cellular and humoral immune response against malaria.