Technique Tricks Bacteria Into Generating Their Own Vaccine
Peng George Wang
Scientists have found a way to manipulate bacteria to grow mutant sugar molecules on their cell surfaces that could be used against them as the key component in potent vaccines. Any resulting vaccines could be developed more quickly, easily and cheaply than many currently available. Most vaccines are created with polysaccharides—long strings of sugars found on the surface of bacterial cells. “We are showing for the first time that you don't have to use complicated chemical reactions to make the alteration to the polysaccharide,” said Peng George Wang, Ohio Eminent Scholar and professor of biochemistry and chemistry, senior author of the study. “All we need to do is ferment the bacteria, and then the polysaccharides that grow on the surface of the cell already incorporate the modification. Bacteria grow lots of polysaccharides—it’s similar to the way humans grow hair. But for a vaccine, you need to make the molecules more active, or energetic. In our method, we feed the bacteria these chemicals while they are growing, and these chemicals end up in the polysaccharides and that makes them more immunogenic. That’s the technique.” Wang said the approach is likely to be applicable to many different kinds of bacteria. But each type of pathogen must be tested individually. His lab will next be testing the method’s effectiveness on the pneumococcus bacteria with an exploratory $100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The current vaccine is complex and expensive to produce. A less expensive way to develop the vaccine would increase its availability in the developing world, Wang said.
To read more, go to http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/polysac.htm.
Originally published Spring, 2009
