Streptococcus pneumoniae remains a major cause of acute
respiratory infections worldwide and is responsible for approximately 1 million childhood deaths each year. Despite the widespread use of
antibiotics, the
mortality and
morbidity of
pneumococcal disease remains high. Therefore, effective
vaccines to prevent
pneumococcal disease are needed.
Bacterial vaccine development in general follows a
similar track starting from large, rather crude
vaccines (whole live, attenuated pathogen) towards smaller, better defined
subunit vaccines. Ultimately, this
track leads to the development and evaluation of minimal, highly defined
subunit vaccines, based on a collection of single protective
epitopes. This mini-
review deals with capsular saccharide based
vaccines. After a short overview of the development of
pneumococcal vaccines from the 23 - valent
polysaccharide vaccines to
polysaccharide-
protein conjugate vaccines, it focuses on the
vaccine potential of synthetic
oligosaccharides, conjugated to
carrier proteins.