# Development of novel protein-based vaccine formulations to prevent pneumococcal colonization and disease

> **NIH NIH R21** · J. CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE, INC. · 2021 · $283,588

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
One of the major problems of the great burden of Streptococcus pneumoniae infections is the acquisition of
antimicrobial resistance and the global spread of resistant clones. This problems get enhanced by the major
disadvantages of the current capsular polysaccharide based vaccines, such as cost, serotype specificity, and
the resulting incomplete coverage. While the use of polysaccharide vaccines, specially the conjugate vaccine,
had significantly reduced the amount of invasive disease caused Spn, it only has reduced that of the represented
serotypes. This occurs mainly because of disease being caused by serotypes not present in the vaccine
(maximum of 23 of the >97 capsule types, only 13 in the conjugate vaccine) and replacement carriage. Our
rationale is that development of a subunit based vaccine utilizing novel conserved antigenic proteins in
conjunction with novel polyphosphazene (PPZ) adjuvants, proven to induce adaptive immunity will deepen the
current toolkit to prevent pneumococcal disease without serotype limitations. Thus, we hypothesize that addition
of conserved immunogenic proteins to the PPZ molecule will provide the groundwork for the development of a
broadly protective pneumococcal subunit based vaccine. The gaps in knowledge we aim to bridge are to define
and characterize novel pneumococcal antigenic proteins and polyelectrolyte adjuvants formulations that will
initiate adaptive immune responses and lead to protection against disease in a serotype independent manner.
The proposed work is significant due to the high incidence serotype replacement that current polysaccharide
based vaccines are prone to, which leads to increase susceptibility of children and the elderly to Spn carriage
and severe infections (e.g. pneumonia, bacteremia, and meningitis); and innovative since it will use novel
formulations of antigenic and conserved pneumococcal proteins to induce potent adaptive immune responses,
that will not be serotype dependent.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10264136
- **Project number:** 5R21AI148722-02
- **Recipient organization:** J. CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Norberto Gonzalez-Juarbe
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $283,588
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-17 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10264136

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10264136, Development of novel protein-based vaccine formulations to prevent pneumococcal colonization and disease (5R21AI148722-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10264136. Licensed CC0.

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