Mäkelä P H
Infection. 1984;12 Suppl 1:S72-7. doi: 10.1007/BF01641750.
Polysaccharide (PS) vaccines are a relatively new class of antibacterial vaccines that have special advantages but also special problems related to their character. Several of them have proven very effective in preventing bacteremic infections caused by encapsulated bacteria such as meningococci, pneumococci and Haemophilus influenzae type b. Protective activity shows excellent correlation with serum anti-PS. However, young children often respond poorly to PS antigens and this limits the use of these vaccines in childhood. Some PS are poor immunizing agents even in adults. The practical implications of these aspects for the use and development of PS vaccines are discussed.
多糖(PS)疫苗是一类相对较新的抗菌疫苗,它们具有特殊优势,但也因其特性存在特殊问题。其中几种已被证明在预防由包膜细菌(如脑膜炎球菌、肺炎球菌和b型流感嗜血杆菌)引起的菌血症感染方面非常有效。保护活性与血清抗PS显示出极好的相关性。然而,幼儿对PS抗原的反应通常较差,这限制了这些疫苗在儿童期的使用。甚至在成年人中,一些PS也是较差的免疫剂。本文讨论了这些方面对PS疫苗使用和开发的实际影响。