Project Details

Addressing Antimicrobial Resistance Through a Klebsiella Pneumoniae Vaccine

Kaitlin Winter, PhD

Summary

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance is on the rise and is a major threat to human health. Several bacteria have been identified as an urgent threat as they are rapidly developing resistance to all antibiotics. Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) one of these and is a leading cause of infections in children worldwide. Vaccines are a globally recognized strategy to combat antimicrobial resistance. GAP: There is currently no Kp vaccine available on the market. We have identified potential Kp vaccine targets that are conserved across many strains of Kp, but need to evaluate their ability to elicit immune responses. HYPOTHESIS: We hypothesized that a Kp vaccine that displays our targets will be immunogenic and that a combination of several targets will induce an immune response that can recognize a wider variety of Kp strains. METHODS: We improved on our vaccine platform to display our vaccine targets. We vaccinated mice with candidate vaccines and combined two targets. We evaluated the immune response by ELISA, allowing us to measure the antibodies elicited by the vaccines. RESULTS: Our improved vaccine platform elicited antibody responses in mice. When both targets were delivered in combination, the quantity of antibodies was consistent with mice that received only one target. Moving forward, we will continue our work to evaluate the ability of these antibodies to protect mice from a Kp infection. Additionally, we will examine the ability of these antibodies to bind to a wide variety of Kp strains, demonstrating the breadth of possible protection. IMPACT: This project aims to develop a vaccine formulation that is ready for human phase 1 clinical trials and would be the first broadly protective Kp vaccine. An effective Kp vaccine would prevent not only antimicrobial resistant infections, but all Kp infections experienced by neonates and children worldwide.