Current challenges in the development of vaccines for pneumonic plague

Abstract

Inhalation of Yersinia pestis bacilli causes pneumonic plague, a rapidly progressing and exceptionally virulent disease. Extensively antibiotic-resistant Y. pestis strains exist and we currently lack a safe and effective pneumonic plague vaccine. These facts raise concern that Y. pestis may be exploited as a bioweapon. Here, I review the history and status of plague vaccine research and advocate that pneumonic plague vaccines should strive to prime both humoral and cellular immunity.

Keywords::

• cellular immunity
• humoral immunity
• pneumonic plague
• Yersinia pestis

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Michelle Parent and Alexander Philipovskiy for performing experiments described herein, along with excellent technical assistance from Lindsey Wilhelm, Kiera Berggren, Frank Szaba, Lawrence Kummer, Caylin Winchell, Debbie Duso and members of the Trudeau Institute Animal Facilities. I also thank Drs Robert Brubaker, Susan Straley, James Bliska and Egil Lien for generously providing access to bacterial strains from their laboratories and Lawrence Johnson for many helpful discussions.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

I thank Trudeau Institute, the NIH (R21-AI054595-Smiley, R01-AI061577-Smiley), and the Northeast Biodefense Center (U54-AI057158-Lipkin) for funding our plague-related studies. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.