The 100 Year hunt for a Gonorrhea Vaccine
The threat of untreatable gonorrhea is on the rise, but there is hope from a first of its kind vaccine.
People have been coming up with treatments for gonorrhea for a very long time. Throughout history there have been some questionable remedies such as mercury injections or burning hot metal. Everything changed in 1937 when the first antibiotics were used against gonorrhea. Finally there was a quick and effective treatment for this disease. Fast forward to today and antibiotics are still our best medicine for fighting gonorrhea, however there’s an issue. Over the last 80 years, this sexually transmitted bacteria has become resistant to most of the antibiotics we’ve thrown at it. As the list of effective antibiotics has gotten smaller, the possibility of untreatable gonorrhea has become a growing concern. A vaccine could be just the answer.
The first attempt to make a gonorrhea vaccine was in 1909. Why do we still not have one? Vaccines work by introducing a small piece of a germ to your immune system. This helps your body identify the infectious agent in the future and put up defenses. This doesn’t work for the bacteria that causes gonorrhea because it can change what parts are on its surface. The bacteria can effectively hide its identity from your immune system. This has made a gonorrhea vaccine very hard to design. However, recently researchers have discovered a new potential gonorrhea vaccine in a surprising place.
The bacteria that causes gonorrhea is closely related to another bacteria known as Neisseria meningitidis. As the name might suggest, this bacteria causes meningitis. After a breakout of meningitis in New Zealand, many people were treated with emergency vaccines known as 4CMenB. This vaccine is made from a portion of Neisseria meningitidis bacteria. Because the gonorrhea bacteria is so closely related, researchers wanted to know if people who received this vaccine were also protected against gonorrhea. The answer was yes, at least partially. This 4CMenB vaccine was ~31% effective at preventing gonorrhea infection. This is the most effective a vaccine has ever been against gonorrhea, but there’s still work to be done.
The 4CMenB vaccine is made of multiple components. It’s unclear which of these parts are causing the protection against gonorrhea. It’s also now known what makes the vaccine only effective in some cases but not others. Better understanding of both these things could lead to a better working vaccine designed specifically to treat gonorrhea. People have been trying to make it for over 100 years and now it seems like we’re closer than ever to having a gonorrhea vaccine.
Dr. Justin Applegate, PhD is a recent graduate from the University of Washington Biochemistry Program. During their time in graduate school they studied Type IV Pili, tiny fibers bacteria use to cause infection.