Potential conjugate vaccines against Candida albicans, a common pathogen which in its most virulent form may cause life-threatening bloodstream infections such as bacterial meningitis in infants and immunocompromised adults, are currently being developed.
As part of the upcoming Chem Soc Rev carbohydrate chemistry themed issue, this review article by members of the Bundle Research Group from the Alberta Glycomics Centre at the University of Alberta highlights the latest and most significant prospects for candidate vaccines against C. albicans. It also contextualises their work on conjugate vaccine design and evaluation within current knowledge on antibody-carbohydrate interactions and glycoconjugate vaccines development.
Their experimental findings show that conjugate vaccines containing disaccharide or trisaccharide attached to immunogenic proteins reduced fungal burden.
Related PowerPoint slides on “β1,2-Mannans Conformationally Interesting Molecules” are also available as electronic supplementary information (ESI) – take a look at these for free.
Read this Chemical Society Reviews article today:
Designing a new antifungal glycoconjugate vaccine
Margaret A. Johnson and David R. Bundle
Chem. Soc. Rev., 2013, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CS35382B
