Streptococcus pneumoniae

• “The EC’s authorization of PREVENAR 20 for infants and children represents a significant opportunity to improve public health by helping to protect against the 20 serotypes responsible for the majority of currently circulating pneumococcal disease in the EU,” said Alexandre de Germay, Chief International Commercial Officer, Executive Vice President, Pfizer.
• The authorization is valid in all 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway.
• Regulatory applications for PREVENAR 20 for the pediatric indication have been submitted to additional countries around the world.
• These studies collectively enrolled more than 4,700 infants and 800 toddlers and children of all ages.

• In 2023, Recce established its dedicated AIR Unit led by researcher Sohinee Sarkar, Ph.D., within MCRI’s state-of-the-art research facilities, underscoring the commitment of both organizations to drive innovation for anti-infective therapeutics.
• “The partnership between Recce and MCRI will advance efforts and promote Australian leadership in the fight against antibiotic resistance.”
  The collaboration between Recce’s AIR Unit and MCRI exemplifies the power of partnership in driving medical breakthroughs.
• As both organizations work together to advance anti-infective research, they remain committed to improving patient outcomes and addressing global health challenges.
• James Graham, Chief Executive Officer of Recce Pharmaceuticals, added, “Our continued work at the AIR Unit aligns with Murdoch Children’s mission to address the global health threat of anti-microbial resistance through innovative research.

• Unlike people, cells perform these handshakes using the diverse range of sugar molecules coating their surface like trees covering a landscape.
• Handshakes between these sugar molecules, or glycans, trigger cells to react in specific ways toward each other, such as escape, ignore or destroy.

What are glycans?

• The vast number of possible glycan structures that can be built from connecting these sugar molecules together allows glycans to store rich information.
• Glycans are chemically bonded to proteins and lipids on the surface of red blood cells.
• Notably, the surface of type A red blood cells have glycans that differ from the glycans on the surface of type B and type O red blood cells.

• For example, distinctive glycoproteins cover the surface of the viruses that cause COVID-19, HIV and H1N1 influenza and help them infect cells.
• Glycolipids also coat many bacteria, allowing them to stick to their hosts and protect them from viruses and immune cells.

How do cells read glycans?

• Found on surfaces of certain immune cells, these lectins deliver the glycans to proteins on other immune cells that can now selectively destroy any viruses or cells that carry that glycan.
• For example, these lectins recognize glycans on the surfaces of cancer cells and direct other immune cells to eliminate these cancer cells.

• Another type of lectin called siglecs are found on surfaces of immune cells and help them distinguish self from nonself, that is, between the cells that make up the body and the cells that are foreign to the body.
• The bacterial glycans in the vaccine trigger an immune response when immune cells recognize the glycans as foreign threats.

Examining every sugar molecule

• Comprehensively extracting all the information stored in glycans is very difficult because there isn’t currently technology able to analyze the complex and diverse structures of glycans.
• Individual glycans are composed of sugar molecules in unique arrangements, but current analytical tools can only simultaneously analyze many glycans.

My lab is confronting this challenge by developing imaging technology that can analyze the structure of glycans by imaging each individual molecule. Essentially, we’re developing a technique to open the jar and study every single candy one at a time. In the long run, my team aspires to unveil how these glycans present themselves to the proteins that recognize them and, finally, reveal the very language that cells use to express themselves.
Kelvin Anggara works for the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research and receives funding from the European Research Council under Project GlycoX (101075996).

• On 25 January 2024, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) adopted a positive opinion recommending a change to the terms of the marketing authorisation for the medicinal product Prevenar 20.
• The marketing authorisation holder for this medicinal product is Pfizer Europe MA EEIG.
• The CHMP adopted an extension to the existing indication for prophylaxis against pneumonia and acute otitis media caused by pneumococci and associated invasive disease, in infants, children and adolescents.
• Active immunisation for the prevention of invasive disease and pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae in individuals 18 years of age and older.