Vaccine development for syphilis

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Syphilis, caused by the spirochete Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum, continues to be a globally prevalent disease despite remaining susceptible to penicillin treatment. Syphilis vaccine development is a viable preventative approach that will serve to complement public health-oriented syphilis prevention, screening and treatment initiatives to deliver a two-pronged approach to stemming disease spread worldwide.

Areas covered: This article provides an overview of the need for development of a syphilis vaccine, summarizes significant information that has been garnered from prior syphilis vaccine studies, discusses the critical aspects of infection that would have to be targeted by a syphilis vaccine, and presents the current understanding within the field of the correlates of protection needed to be achieved through vaccination.

Expert commentary: Syphilis vaccine development should be considered a priority by industry, regulatory and funding agencies, and should be appropriately promoted and supported.

KEYWORDS:

• Syphilis
• congenital syphilis
• HIV co-infection
• cross-protection
• cellular immunity
• humoral immunity
• men who have sex with men
• vaccine

Declaration of interest

The authors have no 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. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; NIH, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [AI-015334]; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.