Every year, tens of thousands of people die from cholera, a diarrheal disease caused by the highly transmissible bacteria Vibrio cholerae. Current vaccines only last 2–5 years and are ineffective in young children.

Scientists have now created a novel type of cholera vaccine using polysaccharides displayed on virus-like particles, as reported in the journal ACS Infectious Diseases.

In mice, the vaccine produced long-lasting antibody responses against V. cholerae.

Current cholera vaccines are given orally and contain killed or weakened V. cholerae germs.

In young children, who are typically affected by cholera in endemic nations, they provide the least level and duration of protection.

The immune system develops antibodies against the O-specific polysaccharide (OSP) on the surface of V. cholerae, but in isolation, this polysaccharide does not elicit a significant, long-lasting immunological response.

Peng Xu, Edward Ryan, Xuefei Huang, and colleagues wondered if adding OSP to virus-like particles could result in more powerful, long-lasting protection.

As a result, the researchers devised a way for rapidly linking numerous copies of OSP to Q, a bacteria-infecting virus-like particle.

Antibodies in blood collected from recovered cholera patients recognized the modified virus-like particles, but not from patients with typhoid, another bacterial disease.

The researchers next inoculated mice with Q-OSP and found that three doses resulted in a significant antibody response that lasted for at least 265 days following the first dose. The immunized mice exhibited antibodies that identified the OSP from V. cholerae’s natural lipopolysaccharide.

When the researchers combined serum antibodies from the mice with other bacteria-killing immune system proteins and live V. cholerae, antibodies from two of the five mice caused higher bacterial death than mice immunized with Q alone.

According to the researchers, the virus-like particle might mimic natural bacteria by presenting numerous copies of OSP on its surface, and it should be tested further as a next-generation cholera vaccine.

Source: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.1c00585

Image Credit: Getty

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