[Vaccination strategies for anthrax prevention]

Abstract

Apart from live spore vaccines with a certain amount of residual virulence for various animal species, there are two acellular protein vaccines for immunoprophylaxis against anthrax in humans. For ethical reasons there are no experimental data available on the efficacy and duration of the immunity they induce in men. Their efficacy was evaluated in laboratory animals, mainly rabbits and rhesus monkeys. Furthermore, it is well known that these vaccines elicit only partial protection in guinea pigs and almost no protection in mice against a challenge with fully virulent spores of Bacillus (B.) anthracis. Other disadvantages are the high amount of boosters necessary to elicit and to maintain a protective immune response, the variability in the composition of bacterial culture supernatants used for production, and the appearance of clinically relevant side effects. Therefore, there is ongoing work worldwide to improve the existing vaccines by substitution with recombinant antigens and to develop new vaccines on the basis of recombinant bacterial or viral live vectors, DNA-vectors, and by addition of new adjuvants. Special attention is given to supplementing the existing toxoid-vaccines with an anti-bacterial component.