Major Step Toward a Vaccine for Chlamydia trachomatis

Worldwide, more than 100 million people (including >1 million people in the U.S.) become infected with Chlamydia trachomatis annually. Infection with C. trachomatis is the most common known cause of infertility and ectopic pregnancy and the most common infectious cause of blindness. Attempts to create vaccines against C. trachomatis have generated little immune response where it is needed most — at mucosal surfaces. Some previously tested vaccines have even rendered animals more vulnerable to C. trachomatis infection.

A Boston-based team developed of a novel vaccine for C. trachomatis and tested its efficacy in mice and in “humanized” mice (engineered mice with human immune systems). The vaccine is composed of nanoparticles that complex a no…