Postgenomic approaches to cholera vaccine development

Abstract

Cholera remains an important public health threat. A cholera vaccine that provides durable protection at the mucosal surface, especially among children in endemic settings, is urgently needed. The availability of the complete genome sequence of a clinical isolate of Vibrio cholerae O1 El Tor has allowed for comparative and functional genomic approaches in the study of cholera. This work holds promise for the identifcation of bacterial targets of protective human immune responses and may contribute to the development of a new generation of cholera vaccines.

Keywords::

• cholera
• comparative genomics
• functional genomics
• in vivo expression technology
• in vivo-induced antigen technology
• signature-tagged mutagenesis
• transcriptional profiling
• vaccines
• Vibrio cholerae