New Zealand to develop mRNA vaccine for Staph bug

A group of scientists at the University of Auckland in New Zealand are working towards developing an mRNA-based vaccine against Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as S. aureus. Staph is the most common cause of hospital-acquired, surgical, and medical implant infections. It can also cause bloodstream infections, bone and joint infections, toxic shock, pneumonia and infective endocarditis, a life-threatening heart infection. Around the world, the commonest form of antibiotic resistance is Methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a ‘superbug’ that’s highly resistant to commonly used antibiotics. Making an mRNA vaccine for staph is trickier than making one for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The SARS-CoV-2 virus makes few proteins and has an obvious target for a vaccine – the spike protein that initiates binding to host cells. Staph, being a bacterium rather than a tiny virus, consists of thousands of proteins. While the team has shown that its vaccine stimulates a robust neutralising antibody response in mice, it’s still working to understand which immune cell populations contribute most to the protective immunity seen in the animals.