A Review of Pneumococcal Vaccines: Current Polysaccharide Vaccine Recommendations and Future Protein Antigens

Abstract

This review describes development of currently available pneumococcal vaccines, provides summary tables of current pneumococcal vaccine recommendations in children and adults, and describes new potential vaccine antigens in the pipeline. Streptococcus pneumoniae, the bacteria responsible for pneumonia, otitis media, meningitis and bacteremia, remains a cause of morbidity and mortality in both children and adults. Introductions of unconjugated and conjugated pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines have each reduced the rate of pneumococcal infections caused by the organism S. pneumoniae. The first vaccine developed, the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23), protected adults and children older than 2 years of age against invasive disease caused by the 23 capsular serotypes contained in the vaccine. Because PPSV23 did not elicit a protective immune response in children younger than 2 years of age, the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) containing seven of the most common serotypes from PPSV23 in pediatric invasive disease was developed for use in children younger than 2 years of age. The last vaccine to be developed, the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13), contains the seven serotypes in PCV7, five additional serotypes from PPSV23, and a new serotype not contained in PPSV23 or PCV7. Serotype replacement with virulent strains that are not contained in the polysaccharide vaccines has been observed after vaccine implementation and stresses the need for continued research into novel vaccine antigens. We describe eight potential protein antigens that are in the pipeline for new pneumococcal vaccines.