Increasing natural immunity may prevent recurrent urinary tract infections

Vaccine may become an alternative to a lifetime on antibiotics, but critics charge that the research has a long way to go.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Jan. 14, 2002.

A vaccine is showing promise in phase II clinical trials as a possible treatment for recurrent urinary tract infections in women.

The vaccine, composed of the heat-killed bacteria that cause most UTIs, appears to provoke an immune response that creates resistance to infection, according to a paper presented at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy last month.

Researchers with the University of Wisconsin in Madison followed 54 women for five months. All were taking daily antibiotics because of a history of as many as 20 infections per year. All were taken off their medication. One-third were given monthly placebo vaginal suppository vaccines while another third were given three weekly doses of the vaccine. The last third were given the initial set of three treatments with "boosters" at six, 10 and 14 weeks.

Of those who received all six treatments, 55% did not experience a new infection while 89% of those on placebo did.

"We wanted to increase the natural immunity of the women by using a vaccine," said Walter J. Hopkins, PhD, lead author of the study and a University of Wisconsin distinguished scientist. "The bacteria that are causing infections in the bladder are infecting mucosal surfaces so we wanted to increase immunity at mucosal sites. That's much better achieved through a mucosal vaccine than an injectable vaccine."

Unlike most currently available vaccines, this one does not appear to provide long-lasting immunity, but researchers say it could be an alternative to prophylactic antibiotic use for the women who have repeated UTIs. It could decrease antibiotic use overall and be one step to reducing antibiotic resistance. [...]