Scientists Highlight a Vaccine Strategy for Urinary Tract Infections

(Newswire.net — August 26, 2021) Orlando, FL — Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are often treated with antibiotics. This type of infection is quite common and is found to potentially affect as many as 50 percent of all women.

A study was carried out and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

In this research, the investigators looked into a new vaccination strategy that could potentially reprogram the body in battling off the bacteria that cause urinary tract infections.

“Although several vaccines against UTIs have been investigated in clinical trials, they have so far had limited success,” said Soman Abraham, Ph.D., 

Abraham is Grace Kerby Distinguished Professor of Pathology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics & Microbiology in the School of Medicine and senior author on the paper.

“There are currently no effective UTI vaccines available for use in the U.S. in spite of the high prevalence of bladder infections,” Abraham said. 

“Our study describes the potential for a highly effective bladder vaccine that can not only eradicate residual bladder bacteria but also prevent future infections,” he added.

It is worth mentioning this strategy actually involved re-programming an insufficient immune response identified by the team last year. They found that when E.coli bacteria-infected mouse bladders, the immune system dispatches repair cells that produce healing to the damaged tissue.

However, this also leads to launching very few warrior cells to fight off the attacker and causes bacteria to never fully clear, living on in the bladder to attack again.

According to lead author Jianxuan Wu, Ph.D., the new vaccine strategy attempts to ‘teach’ the bladder to more effectively fight off the attacking bacteria. 

Wu recently earned his doctorate from the Department of Immunology at Duke, 

“By administering the vaccine directly into the bladder where the residual bacteria harbor, the highly effective vaccine antigen, in combination with an adjuvant known to boost the recruitment of bacterial clearing cells, performed better than traditional intramuscular vaccination,” Wu added. 

Many sufferers of UTIs turn to the use of antibiotics. There are also all-natural remedies like cranberry juice being widely resorted to nowadays. Cranberry has a therapeutic type of sugar called D-mannose, which binds with the UTI-causing bacteria that could otherwise cause the infection.

Today, it is obtained widely through the use of formulas like Divine Bounty D-mannose. This amazing formula is used widely as a remedy by individuals with recurrent UTIs. It is popularized by its high potency and continues to be a popular choice in the global market (https://www.amazon.com/D-Mannose-600mg-Cranberry-Dandelion-Extract/dp/B01LX5KGF0).