Identifying protective Streptococcus pyogenes vaccine antigens recognized by both B and T cells in human adults and children.

No commercial vaccine exists against Group A streptococci (GAS; Streptococcus pyogenes) and only little is known about anti-GAS protective immunity. In our effort to discover new protective vaccine candidates, we selected 21 antigens based on an in silico evaluation. These were all well-conserved among different GAS strains, upregulated in host-pathogen interaction studies, and predicted to be extracellular or associated with the surface of the bacteria.