AUTHOR=Roberts Lydia M. , Powell Daniel A. , Frelinger Jeffrey A. 

TITLE=Adaptive Immunity to Francisella tularensis and Considerations for Vaccine Development

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2018.00115

DOI=10.3389/fcimb.2018.00115

ISSN=2235-2988

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Francisella tularensis</italic> is an intracellular bacterium that causes the disease tularemia. There are several subspecies of <italic>F. tularensis</italic> whose ability to cause disease varies in humans. The most virulent subspecies, <italic>tularensis</italic>, is a Tier One Select Agent and a potential bioweapon. Although considerable effort has made to generate efficacious tularemia vaccines, to date none have been licensed for use in the United States. Despite the lack of a tularemia vaccine, we have learned a great deal about the adaptive immune response the underlies protective immunity. Herein, we detail the animal models commonly used to study tularemia and their recapitulation of human disease, the field's current understanding of vaccine-mediated protection, and discuss the challenges associated with new vaccine development.</p>