STAPHYLOCOCCUS
AUREUS
is a
gram+
bacteria commonly found in farm animals & humans,
especially, on skin & in nasal passages.
[pic &
Science cover]
when
cultured in lab it's intensely
yellow (Latin: aureus = "gold")
in susceptible hosts: neonates, immunologically suppressed, &
surgical patients
Staph can cause serious (often lethal) noscomial
(acquired in hospital) infections
including: pneumonia, endocarditis, toxic shock, &
sepsis (lethal)
Gram+ indicates a
bacterial capsule is present, but until 1980's
carbohydrates
couldn't be identified in Staph. In 1989 Walter
Karakowa (PSU) had
identified 2 isolates of Staph that accounted for 85% of all infections.
Using some
carbohydrates from these isolates John Robbins (NIH)
in 1990
made a conjugate vaccine
(CH2O + protein
complex) to trick
T-cells
into thinking it was an antigen to Staph. Trials indicated some success
with this Staph vaccine, but many were skeptical... Would any antibodies
made with this vaccine protect against future infections?
next
In 1996, a mouse model was
created by Ali Fattom (Nabi
Corporation of Boca Raton), in
which the conjugate vaccine protected mice against lethal injections of
Staph.
A short while later, when tried on a rat infection endocarditis model, the vaccine also worked.
Human
trials (late 1999) in patients on hemodialysis and in end stage renal
failure
(patients with high Staph infection rates) showed a statically significant
lowered infection rate (only 11 of 892 vaccinated patients). However,
antibody titer in these patients dropped in only 10 months.
Human trials on patients
awaiting surgery have been successful
and in
2004 Nabi has filed a
Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) with the
European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA).
Staph-VAX
(in stage I
FDA trials) has
the potential to be a very effective antibiotic
against Staph infections in an era when anitbiotic-resistance threatens medicine.
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