Design and development of pilus vaccines for Haemophilus influenzae diseases

The authors study the roles of pili in adhesion, colonization, virulence and immunity with a focus on their utility as vaccine components. Their concepts and methods of vaccine development have been proved by the continued field success of two pilus vaccines developed in their laboratory: an Escherichia coli pilus vaccine for neonatal diarrhea in pigs and a Moraxella bovis pilus vaccine for infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis (pinkeye) in cattle. These vaccines contain intact pilus rods as the active ingredients. Protection against disease was pilus-specific and, for broad protection, required that the most frequently occurring families and serotypes of pili in the natural population of pathogens be included in the vaccines.