New pneumococcal vaccine may fight all strains of disease

Pneumococcus bacteria—the culprit behind pneumonia, meningitis, bronchitis and ear infections—causes nearly 15 million infections each year, and is a leading cause of death in children under 5. Although vaccines targeting several pneumococcus strains have been available since the 1980s, researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo have found a new way to train the bacteria that they believe will increase the number of strains vaccines can target without unnecessarily killing good bacteria. The study, “Direct vaccination against pneumococcal disease,” was published in May 2016 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Blaine Pfeifer, associate professor in the department of chemical and biological engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo, led the study and says, unlike traditional vaccines that prevent colonization, the new vaccine promotes it. The bacteria in the vaccine is programmed to attack only pneumococcus that are dangerous, leaving those that contribute to...