History and Prospect of Vaccines Against Pertussis

Pertussis, known as whooping cough, is a severe respiratory disease most commonly caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. It is transmitted from person to person by aerosols and infects the ciliated epithelium of the airways. Pertussis was responsible for high mortality rates before the introduction of effective vaccines in the second half of the 20th century. Vaccination is thought to be the most effective method for control pertussis. There have been two types of pertussis vaccines available. The first-generation vaccine was the whole-cell vaccine, which was efficacious. However, it caused occasional side effects. The whole-cell vaccine was gradually replaced by the acellular vaccine. The acellular vaccine consists of detoxified, purified pertussis antigens. Despite the widespread use of the acellular vaccine, pertussis has recently been on the rise. In order to overcome such a situation, developments of new pertussis vaccines are in progress over the world. One is a genetically modified live vaccine which is thought to maintain safety while inducing immunity close to natural infection. And also there are a mucosal vaccine using lactic acid bacteria carrying components of pertussis and a bacterium-like particle vaccine with components of pertussis. In this review we introduce history and prospect of vaccines against pertussis