Development of a vaccine against invasive pneumococcal disease based on combinations of virulence proteins of Streptococcus pneumoniae

Current global efforts are focused on exploring alternative pneumococcal vaccine strategies, aimed at addressing the shortcomings of existing formulations, without compromising efficacy. One such strategy involves the use of one or more pneumococcal protein antigens common to all serotypes, to provide cheap, non-serotype-dependent protection. In this study, we evaluated the protective efficacy of immunization of mice with PdB (a pneumolysin toxoid), PspA, PspC (CbpA), PhtB, and PhtE in an invasive-disease model. The antigens were administered in alum adjuvant, either alone or in various combinations. Protection against intraperitoneal challenge with virulent type 2 and 6A strains was assessed in two murine strains. Our findings show that in some situations, different individual proteins gave the best (and worst) protection. However, in many cases, a synergistic/additive effect was seen by using multiple proteins even where the individual proteins showed little value by themselves. For instance, the median survival times for mice immunized with combinations of PdB and PspA, PdB and PspC, or PspA and PspC were significantly longer than those for mice immunized with any of the single antigens. To date, the combination of PdB, PspA, and PspC offers the best protection.