A novel method of vaccination against salmonellosis using small extracellular vesicles has been developed and tested in preclinical studies by scientists from the University of Florida. The head of the research group is Professor Mariola Edelmann.
There is currently no U.S. FDA-approved vaccine for humans against non-typhoid salmonella bacteria, i.e. one that does not cause typhoid but other types of gastroenteritis. Each year, salmonellosis kills hundreds of thousands of people and infects approximately 93.8 million people worldwide.
Professor Mariola Edelmann and her team began working on a treatment that will make the animals immune to future infection with this type of bacteria. Scientists’ approach is novel because they use a tool that is already known by cells. Therefore, the cells need to communicate with each other and increase the mice’s resistance to disease.
“In nature, mice suffer from salmonellosis much more severely than humans, so the fact that our treatment allowed them to survive is promising.”,
says Prof. Edelmann.
The scientists compared mice that received the new vaccine with those that had been infected with a weakened Salmonella strain. It is a frequently used method to determine the effectiveness of a potential salmonellosis vaccine. The researchers found that in both cases, the mice survived the future infection.
‘Mass-scale production of a vaccine could have benefits beyond preventing salmonellosis,’
says Prof. Edelmann.