A next-generation GMMA-based vaccine candidate to fight shigellosis.

Shigellosis is a leading cause of diarrheal disease in low-middle-income countries (LMICs). Effective vaccines will help to reduce the disease burden, exacerbated by increasing antibiotic resistance, in the most susceptible population represented by young children. A challenge for a broadly protective vaccine against shigellosis is to cover the most epidemiologically relevant serotypes among >50 Shigella serotypes circulating worldwide.

Recombinant Clostridium difficile toxin fragments as carrier protein for PSII surface polysaccharide preserve their neutralizing activity.

Clostridium difficile is a Gram-positive bacterium and is the most commonly diagnosed cause of hospital-associated and antimicrobial-associated diarrhea. Despite the emergence of epidemic C. difficile strains having led to an increase in the incidence of the disease, a vaccine against this pathogen is not currently available.

Development of a glycoconjugate vaccine to prevent meningitis in Africa caused by meningococcal serogroup X.

Neisseria meningitidis is a major cause of bacterial meningitis worldwide, especially in the African meningitis belt, and has a high associated mortality. The meningococcal serogroups A, W, and X have been responsible for epidemics and almost all cases of meningococcal meningitis in the meningitis belt over the past 12 y. Currently no vaccine is available against meningococcal X (MenX).

Synthesis of Staphylococcus aureus type 5 capsular polysaccharide repeating unit using novel L-FucNAc and D-FucNAc synthons and immunochemical evaluation.

Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of nosocomial infections. Glycoconjugates of type 5 and 8 capsular polysaccharides have been investigated for vaccine application. The proposed structure of type 5 polysaccharide is: →4-β-D-ManNAcA-(1→4)-α-L-FucNAc(3OAc)-(1→3)-β-D-FucNAc-(1→.

Phosphorylation of the synthetic hexasaccharide repeating unit is essential for the induction of antibodies to Clostridium difficile PSII cell wall polysaccharide.

Clostridium difficile is emerging worldwide as a major cause of nosocomial infections. The negatively charged PSII polysaccharide has been found in different strains of C. difficile and, thereby, represents an important target molecule for a possible carbohydrate-based vaccine.

Evaluation of a Group A Streptococcus synthetic oligosaccharide as vaccine candidate.

Bacterial infections caused by Group A Streptococcus (GAS) are a serious health care concern that currently cannot be prevented by vaccination. The GAS cell-wall polysaccharide (GAS-PS) is an attractive vaccine candidate due to its constant expression pattern on different bacterial strains and protective properties of anti-GAS-PS antibodies. Here we report for the first time the immunoprotective efficacy of glycoconjugates with synthetic GAS oligosaccharides as compared to those containing the native GAS-PS.

Structural insights into the catalytic mechanism of the bacterial class B phosphatase AphA belonging to the DDDD superfamily of phosphohydrolases.

AphA is a magnesium-dependent, bacterial class B acid phosphatase that catalyzes the hydrolysis of a variety of phosphoester substrates and belongs to the DDDD superfamily of phosphohydrolases. The recently reported crystal structure of AphA from Escherichia coli has revealed the quaternary structure of the enzyme together with hints about its catalytic mechanism. The present work reports the crystal structures of AphA from E.