Recent Advances in Pathogenic Streptococcus Vaccine Development

Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn) and Streptococcus pyogenes (Spy) cause many invasive and noninvasive diseases responsible for high morbidity and mortality worldwide. Safe, efficacious and affordable vaccines could have a significant, positive impact on the global infectious disease burden. Since the implementation of pneumococcal vaccine in the 1980s, the incidence of Spn infection has decreased significantly. Still so, these currently used multivalent polysaccharides and conjugated pneumococcal vaccines have some limitations. For Spy, there are even no vaccines available yet. There is an urgent need of new vaccines against Spn and Spy. Encouragingly, with the hard work of many investigators worldwide, a number of new vaccines candidates are developed with promising results. Of them, many have already entered the clinical trial stage. This review will describe the current status of Spn and Spy vaccine development, with particular focus on protein-based strategy.