Possible Fungal Vaccines: Immune compromised patients

[tcmgpt13]

I just found this abstract in the Lancet, and found it to be something which may give a lot of us some hope, since one of the hallmarks of morgellons is a compromised immune system for whatever reason. Many patients are reporting fungal infections which seem to accompany other symptoms of morgellons. I do believe that many cases of morgellons are found in people who live along coastal areas or areas which experience a lot of humid weather. As a result it is possible that many of these same people were perhaps exposed to mold in their homes or work place buildings. So the thought that perhaps there may be some vaccines to help people overcome this problem in the future is encouraging, especially as it is also possible to have allergies to mold or be genetically predisposed to have slow elimination of mold from the body.

The Lancet Infectious Diseases 2008; 8:114-124
DOI:10.1016/S1473-3099(070016-1

Review

Fungal vaccines: real progress from real challenges

Prof Antonio Cassone MD email address a Corresponding Author Information
Summary

Among viral, bacterial, and fungal diseases, the latter are the only branch of infectious diseases without a vaccine for any of their causative agents. This is at odds with a disease burden that remains unabated by conventional chemotherapy and infection control measures. Since most fungal infections occur in immunocompromised patients, the generation of tools relying on host immunity for effectiveness is a notable challenge. Nevertheless, with improved knowledge of the host–fungus relation, and the spectacular advances in genome sequencing, genetic engineering, and proteomics, strong progress in fungal vaccine research is being made. Some vaccines induce the generation of directly fungicidal antibodies; others are protective in animals carrying major risk factors for fungal infections, such as CD4+ T-cell-deficiency or neutropenia. Together with the demonstrated efficacy of various antibodies in passive vaccination approaches, there is growing confidence in the future availability of safe and efficacious immunological tools to combat deadly microbes in a weak host.
Affiliations

a. Department of Infectious, Parasitic and Immune-mediated Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

Corresponding Author InformationCorrespondence to: Prof A Cassone, Department of Infectious, Parasitic and Immune-mediated Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299 00161 Rome, Italy