Staph Aureus Vaccine

About Staph Aureus Vaccine

Staphylococcus aureus vaccine development has been notoriously difficult. S aureus causes skin infections, bloodstream infections, endocarditis, and osteomyelitis. Methicillin resistant S aureus MRSA is a major cause of hospital infections. Multiple vaccine candidates have failed in clinical trials. V710, a Merck vaccine targeting iron regulated surface determinant B, was stopped in 2011 after showing no efficacy and a potential safety signal in surgical patients. A Pfizer four antigen S aureus vaccine trial in spinal surgery patients was halted in 2018 for futility. The difficulty of developing a S aureus vaccine may reflect the complex immune evasion strategies of the bacterium. S aureus colonizes a large proportion of humans without causing disease, which complicates vaccine design. A successful S aureus vaccine would prevent hundreds of thousands of infections annually.