# Development of an improved vaccine against Brucella abortus

> **NIH NIH R03** · VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INST AND ST UNIV · 2020 · $77,904

## Abstract

Project Summary
 Brucella spp. are bacteria that naturally infect a variety of domesticated and wild animals leading to
abortions and sterility, and these bacteria are also capable of causing debilitating human infections, which
often result from human exposure to infected animals and animal products. Brucella spp. are considered
threats as potential biological weapons. Importantly, antibiotic treatment against brucellosis is prone to disease
relapse, and there is currently no safe and effective vaccine to protect humans against infection with Brucella.
The brucellae are intracellular pathogens that reside within immune cells called macrophages where they
replicate in a specialized compartment, and the capacity of Brucella to survive and replicate within
macrophages is essential to their ability to cause disease. Over the last few years, our laboratory has
characterized genetic pathways that are critical for the intracellular survival and pathogenesis of Brucella
strains, and specifically, we have identified small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) that are essential for Brucella
virulence.
 Preliminary experiments have demonstrated that a family of sRNAs, called the AbcRs is required for the
ability of B. abortus to chronically infect mice. When these genes encoding these two sRNAs (i.e., AbcR1 and
AbcR2) are deleted, the resulting strain is highly attenuated, and moreover, we have determined that this
deletion strain produces extremely high levels of Brucella immunogenic proteins. We hypothesize that the
abcR1 abcR2 deletion strain can serve as a highly effective live, attenuation vaccine against B. abortus
challenge, and the pilot studies outlined in this application will test this hypothesis. In the end, the information
gleaned from these studies may be used to develop an effective vaccine against human Brucella infection.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9957701
- **Project number:** 1R03AI151494-01
- **Recipient organization:** VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INST AND ST UNIV
- **Principal Investigator:** Clayton C Caswell
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $77,904
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-03-01 → 2022-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9957701

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9957701, Development of an improved vaccine against Brucella abortus (1R03AI151494-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9957701. Licensed CC0.

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