AAAS: “Study dampens hope that meningitis vaccine can also prevent gonorrhea.”
Couple of points about the causative agent of gonorrhea in the microphotograph, with many names including the formal designation as Neisseria gonorrheae but also the common name of ‘the clap.’ This is magnified 1,000-fold + not a great gram stain sadly. The upper blue arrow points at some Neisseria that have probably been taken inside a pus cell or ‘poly’ for short. The lower blue arrow points out a group of the organisms outside of pus cells.
“Nine years ago, a serendipitous finding at sexual health clinics raised hopes for the prevention of gonorrhea, one of the world’s most widespread sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Researchers in New Zealand discovered that patients had a 31% reduced risk of infection if they had previously been vaccinated against meningococcal group B—which causes meningitis, not STIs—especially in people entering college.” And this “cross-protection” made sense, because N. meningitidis, the meningococcal bacterium, is closely related to N. gonorrhoeae, meaning some antibodies might work against both.
But a randomized controlled trial (RCT) published this wk in The New England Journal of Medicine has dampened those hopes. “The study showed that a meningococcal vaccine named 4CMenB did not prevent gonorrhea in men who have sex with men (MSM) at high risk of STIs.”
“Gonorrhea increases the risk of contracting HIV and can lead to infertility if not treated properly…with some 82 million cases worldwide every year, and the microbe has a knack for developing resistance against antibiotics.” Additionally, developing a vaccine has proved difficult, in part because N. gonorrhoeae rapidly alters its surface proteins to evade detection by the human immune system.
Further study is needed in other populations in different parts of the world, in the constant battle against pernicious microorganisms.
