Vaccines and immunotherapy against Pseudomonas aeruginosa

A number of different vaccines and several monoclonal antibodies have been developed in the last decades for active and passive vaccination against the Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These approaches include vaccine antigens such as lipopolysaccharide, surface polysaccharides, polysaccharide-protein conjugates, flagella, outer membrane proteins, pili, whole formalin-killed P aeruginosa cells, live-attenuated P aeruginosa and Salmonella enterica strains expressing P aeruginosa antigens and DNA sequences. While many of these experimental vaccines and monoclonal antibodies have been tested in preclinical. trials, only a few have reached clinical. phases and none of these vaccines has obtained market authorization. The purpose of this review is to provide a brief summary of the present state of the development of vaccines and immunotherapies against P aeruginosa infections. According to the different types of infection caused by P aeruginosa Localized on mucosal surfaces such as the airways or systemic infection in the blood stream several potential routes suggesting optimal means to administer the experimental vaccines are presented. Finally, the inherent problem of testing P. aeruginosa candidate vaccines in patient populations is discussed. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All. rights reserved.