Researchers at UConn’s Center of Excellence in Vaccine Research (CEVR) have made a breakthrough in vaccine development for a common and difficult to treat pneumonia-causing pathogen. Their research was recently published in the Nature Partner Journal – Vaccines.
For Mycoplasma pneumoniae, vaccine development has been stalled since the 1960s due to a phenomenon called vaccine-enhanced disease (VED) or vaccine-induced disease exacerbation. A vaccine for this type of community-acquired pneumonia has been long sought, since the illness can pose problems for closed community settings such as military bases, hospitals, ships, college dormitories, and prisons.