Efficacy of the new Yersinia pestis subunit vaccine in animal models of plague
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Copyright: © 2020 . This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Until recently, the vaccine against Yersinia pestis, the etiological agent of plague, consisted of a formalin-inactivated,
whole-cell vaccine. The vaccine was discontinued because it apparently only protected the vaccinated host against
bubonic plague but not pneumonic plague. We have since found that the whole-cell vaccine only induced antibodies
against the capsule F1 protein but not antibodies against the virulence protein (V-antigen) that appears to be required
for a robust protection. The new plague vaccine consists of subunits of the F1 capsule protein and V-antigen either as
individual subunits or a fusion of the two subunits. The genes for each these proteins are encoded on two separate
virulence plasmids; one of the plasmids is specific for Y. pestis.
