Development of a protein antigen based pneumococcal vaccine utilizing a polyanhydride nanoparticle delivery platform

Streptococcus pneumoniae is the primary cause of bacterial pneumonia and contributes to millions of deaths worldwide annually. The current capsule polysaccharide based vaccines do provide some protection, but the 7 to 23 valent formulations cannot protect against the over 90 serotypes currently known. Pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA) is a promising candidate for a protein-based vaccine against S. pneumoniae, showing protection in immunized mice and providing the advantage of universal protection from all serotypes of the bacterium. This project shows the results of immunizing CBA/N mice intranasally and subcutaneously with PspA encapsulated into a novel polyanhydride nanoparticle delivery platform in attempt to create a protective protein-based pneumococcal vaccine against bacterial challenge