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Brucella abortus vaccines play a central role in bovine brucellosis control/eradication programs and have been successfully used worldwide for decades. Strain 19 and RB51 are the approved B. abortus vaccines strains most commonly used to protect cattle against infection and abortion. However, due to some drawbacks shown by these vaccines much effort has been undertaken for the development of new vaccines, safer and more effective, that could also be used in other susceptible species of animals. In this paper, we present a review of the main aspects of the vaccines that have been used in the brucellosis control over the years and the current research advances in the development of new B. abortus vaccines.

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Approximately 60% of Helicobacter pylori isolates possess the cagA gene and express its 120-to 140-kDa product (CagA). In this study, the cagA gene was detected in H. pylori isolates from 26 (81.3%) of 32 patients with duodenal ulcers (DU), 17 (68.0%) of 25 patients with gastric ulcers, and 23 (59.0%) of 39 patients with nonulcer dyspepsia (NUD). By Western blotting (immunoblotting) with antiserum to CagA, in vitro CagA expression was demonstrated for 95.5% of cagA ؉ strains compared with 0% of strains lacking cagA. Sera from patients infected with cagA ؉ strains (n ‫؍‬ 66) reacted with recombinant CagA in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to a significantly greater extent than either sera from patients infected with strains lacking cagA (n ‫؍‬ 30) or sera from uninfected persons (n ‫؍‬ 25) (P < 0.001). A strain lacking cagA was isolated from eight patients who had serum immunoglobulin G antibodies to CagA, which suggests that these patients were infected with multiple strains. Serum immunoglobulin G antibodies to CagA were present in 87.5, 76.0, and 56.4% of patients with DU, gastric ulcers, and NUD, respectively (odds ratio, 5.41; 95% confidence interval, 1.44 to 24.72; P ‫؍‬ 0.004 [DU versus NUD]). These data demonstrate an association between infection with cagA ؉ H. pylori and the presence of duodenal ulceration and indicate that serologic testing is a sensitive method for detecting infection with cagA ؉ strains.

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