UCSD Scientists Discover Why Staph Bacteria Keeps Outsmarting Vaccines
Staphylococcus aureus cultures in the Liu Lab. Photo by Kyle Dykes/UC San Diego Health Sciences. Scientists Discover Why Staph Bacteria Keeps Outsmarting Vaccines In a breakthrough that could revolutionize how we fight one of the world's most persistent bacterial threats, researchers at UC San Diego have uncovered why vaccines against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) keep failing in humans despite working well in mice. The culprit? A clever immune-dampening protein that the bacteria triggers in our bodies. The research, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, reveals that S. aureus prompts our immune system to produce high levels of a protein called interleukin-10 (IL-10), which essentially neutralizes antibodies that would otherwise fight the infection. This explains why approximately 30 clinical trials for S. ...