University of Michigan (U-M) scientists have made an important
step toward what could become the first vaccine in the U.S. to
prevent urinary tract infections, if the robust immunity
achieved in mice can be reproduced in humans. The findings are
published September 18 in the open-access journal PLoS
Pathogens. Urinary tract infections (UTIs) affect 53 percent of
women and 14 percent of men at least once in their lives. These
infections lead to lost work time and 6.8 million medical
provider's office visits, 1.3 million emergency room visits and
245,000 hospitalizations a year, with an annual cost of $2.4
billion in the United States. To help combat this common health
issue, the U-M scientists used a novel systematic approach,
combining bioinformatics, genomics and proteomics, to look for
key parts of the bacterium, Escherichia coli, that could be used
in a vaccine to elicit an effective immune response. The team,
led by Dr. Harry L.T. Mobley, Ph.D., screened 5,379 possible
bacterial proteins and identified th