Current advances and challenges in the development of Acinetobacter vaccines

Abstract

Acinetobacter baumannii is a major cause of healthcare-associated infections worldwide with high morbidity and mortality. The clinical treatment of A. baumannii infections has become increasingly difficult because of the rapid emerging of multidrug and extremely drug resistant strains. Thus, there is an urgent need for the development of novel intervention strategies to combat this multidrug-resistant pathogen. Vaccine is one of the most effective medical measures for infection control and is likely to overcome the development of multidrug resistance by A. baumannii. Here we discussed the recent advances and potential challenges in development of A. baumannii vaccines with a focus on the 3 most important steps in the preclinical vaccine development: antigen selection, immune correlates of protection, and animal models for efficacy evaluation.

Keywords:

• Acinetobacter
• Vaccine
• antigen selection
• correlate of protection
• animal model

Funding

The Acinetobacter research was supported by the Vaccine Program, National Research Council Canada (NRC) and by a Joint Collaborative Research Project between NRC and Ministry of Science and Technology Taiwan. The view expressed in this article is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of NRC.