PNAG: broadening infection protection

A multi-institutional team has added more than 20 pathogens to the list of known bacteria that express poly-N-acetylglucosamine, a bacterial capsule polysaccharide that provides a potentially broad-spectrum target for vaccination.¹ The findings open up new indications for Alopexx Vaccine LLC and Alopexx Pharmaceuticals LLC, which are already developing a vaccine and an antibody for passive immunization, respectively.

Over the past two decades, studies by multiple groups have identified poly-N-acetylglucosamine (PNAG), a polysaccharide encoded by a conserved four-gene locus, as a component of the surface capsule in at least seven species of bacteria.^2-7...