Chlamydia Vaccines
Luis M. de la Maza, Sukumar Pal, Anja W. Olsen and Frank Follmann
from: Chlamydia Biology: From Genome to Disease (Edited by: Ming Tan, Johannes H. Hegemann and Christine Sütterlin). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2020) Pages: 339-384.
Abstract
Vaccination is the most cost effective and efficient way to control infectious diseases. Vaccines against several members of the Chlamydia genus are urgently needed, especially those against sexually transmitted Chlamydia trachomatis, where current measures have failed to control the global epidemic. Preclinical research has made significant progress over the last four decades, and vaccines are now moving into development and clinical testing. The first Phase I trial of a candidate vaccine for C. trachomatis sexually transmitted infections (STIs) has been completed and others are on the way. Here, we provide an overview of the status of Chlamydia vaccines against the principal pathogens in both humans and animals, focusing primarily on human C. trachomatis STIs. We discuss the approaches pursued following the trachoma clinical trials in the 1960's, including inactivated whole-cell, attenuated strain, and subunit vaccines. Novel adjuvants and delivery systems and the challenges of inducing adaptive immunity in the female genital tract are covered. Lastly, we envision the implementation of C. trachomatis STI vaccines by proposing how to move them through the clinical development phases I-IV read more ...
