Introduction:

Infectious diseases of the respiratory tract are among the leading causes of respiratory conditions in patients at extreme ages.

Objective:

Describe the immunological bases of the disease and the new conjugate pneumococcal vaccine candidate PCV7-TT developed in Cuba.

Methods:

A search was conducted in the databases Medline, Pubmed, SciELO, LILACS, Cochrane Library and Web of Science for documents published from May 2018 to March 2020. The 64 most relevant and novel papers were selected.

Results:

Streptococcus pneumoniae is the causative agent of pneumococcal disease, a condition causing about one million deaths a year worldwide, mainly in developing countries. It is a Gram-positive facultative anaerobic encapsulated coccus divided into 48 serogroups and 97 typified serotypes. Several virulence factors ensure its pathogenicity mechanism. One of the most important of these is the capsular polysaccharide constituting the target of the existing conjugate and non-conjugate pneumococcal vaccines. The study considered pneumococcal surface protein C as a possible candidate for the research and development of preventive vaccines. On the other hand, extracellular vesicles could be a possible vaccine adjuvant candidate for preventive and therapeutic use.

Conclusions:

Pneumococcus is a global health problem, and the use of conjugate pneumococcal vaccines is the most effective tool for its prevention. The vaccine candidate PCV7-TT developed in Cuba is safe, well-tolerated, immunogenic and not inferior to the vaccines so far registered.

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