Identification of novel S. pneumoniae candidate vaccine antigens and the nature of the immune response elicited by them

Mortality due to pneumococcal infections remains high worldwide, augmented by widespread antibiotic resistance in many pneumococcal strains. To identify protein antigens that could be involved in the development of protective immunity to S. pneumoniae, a pneumococcal cell wall protein-enriched extract was screened using 2-D gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting with either sera obtained longitudinally from children attending day-care centers or sera obtained from mice immunized with the pneumococcal cell wall protein extract. The identified proteins that share no- or low- homology to human proteins and which...