Vaccines and therapeutic agents for tularemia

Abstract

Tularemia is not particularly prevalent in North America under normal circumstances; however, recent concerns about bioterrorism have brought Francisella tularensis, the causative agent of tularemia, into the limelight. Although certain antibiotics can successfully treat tularemia, therapy must begin shortly after exposure to ensure a positive outcome. The only vaccine developed to date is a live attenuated strain of F. tularensis subspecies holarctica. Unfortunately, it has been plagued by regulatory issues. In the past few years, considerable research effort and funding have been committed for developing an effective treatment or vaccine for tularemia and, as a result, a small number of patents have been published that describe the development of potential therapeutics and new live attenuated or subunit vaccines against tularemia.

Keywords::

• Francisella
• tularemia
• vaccine

Acknowledgements

We apologize to all authors whose contributions could not be cited here due to space limitations and gratefully acknowledge W Conlan for critical review of this manuscript. The tularemia work in the authors’ laboratory was partially supported by grant R21AI59064 from the National Institute of Health, USA and by National Research Council Canada (A-base).