A PROTOTYPE vaccine against Escherichia coli O157, the cause of the outbreak of food poisoning in Scotland that killed 20 people a year ago, has cleared its first big hurdle. During preliminary trials, the genetically engineered vaccine triggered a strong protective response in healthy volunteers.
The vaccine is being developed at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Maryland. Shousun Szu and her colleagues report in the Journal of Infectious Diseases (vol 177, p 383) that within a week, 80 per cent of their 87 volunteers had developed large numbers of antibodies that killed laboratory cultures of E.coli O157. Duane Alexander, director of the institute, says this response might be rapid enough to protect people once an outbreak had begun, particularly the elderly and young children who are most vulnerable to infection.
Szu's vaccine has two components. The vital part is a sugar called the O-specific ...
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