Abstract
Bacteria of the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) remain an important cause of morbidity and mortality among patients suffering from cystic fibrosis. Eradication of these pathogens by antimicrobial therapy often fails, highlighting the need to develop novel strategies to eradicate infections. Vaccines are attractive since they can confer protection to particularly vulnerable patients, as is the case of cystic fibrosis patients. Several studies have identified specific virulence factors and proteins as potential subunit vaccine candidates. So far, no vaccine is available to protect from Bcc infections. In the present work, we review the most promising postgenomic approaches and selected web tools available to speed up the identification of immunogenic proteins with the potential of conferring protection against Bcc infections.
Highlights
Burkholderia cepacia was initially described in 1950 by Walter Burkholder as the phytopathogen formerly named Pseudomonas cepacia [1]. This organism emerged in the 1980s as an important opportunistic pathogen of patients suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF)
B. cepacia remains as the type species, the remarkable advances achieved in the molecular taxonomy of the bacterium led to the recognition that it is not a single species, but several closely related species that infect CF patients
These bacterial species comprise the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc), which contains at least 24 distinct species [3,4,5,6]
Summary
Burkholderia cepacia was initially described in 1950 by Walter Burkholder as the phytopathogen formerly named Pseudomonas cepacia [1] This organism emerged in the 1980s as an important opportunistic pathogen of patients suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF). B. cepacia remains as the type species, the remarkable advances achieved in the molecular taxonomy of the bacterium led to the recognition that it is not a single species, but several closely related species that infect CF patients Together, these bacterial species comprise the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc), which contains at least 24 distinct species [3,4,5,6]. We review the powerful tools presently available, resulting from postgenomic knowledge and bioinformatic web tools, to design and develop protective vaccines
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