Research progress on immunoprotective mechanisms of enteric fever and vaccine development

Enteric fever remains a serious global health challenge. Effective control of enteric fever depends on clean water and proper sanitation, which remains unattainable in resource-limited settings. Vaccination is therefore one of critical preventive measures. Nevertheless, there exists a paucity of systematic reviews integrating pathogenesis, the protective mechanisms, and translational vaccinology developments associated with enteric fever.

To enhance the mechanistic understanding of enteric fever, this review summarizes the recent advances of pathogenesis, protective immune mechanism, as well as current challenges and innovations in vaccinology.

CD4⁺ T cells, CD8⁺ T cells and B cells collectively play critical roles in the protective immune mechanisms against enteric fever. Currently licensed vaccines for enteric fever exhibit suboptimal efficacy and limited cross-protection. The absence of licensed paratyphoid vaccines underscores the imperative to develop novel vaccines, particularly multivalent vaccines.