Linking Immune Evasion Mechanisms to Staphylococcal Vaccine Failures

Vaccination arguably remains the only long-term strategy to limit the spread of infections and its related antibiotic resistance. To date, however, all staphylococcal vaccines tested in clinical trials have failed. In this review, we propose that the failure of vaccines is intricately linked to prior host exposure to and the pathogen's capacity to evade adaptive immune defenses. We suggest that non-protective immune imprints created by previous exposure to are preferentially recalled by SA vaccines, and IL-10 induced by S. aureus plays a unique role in shaping these non-protective anti-staphylococcal immune responses. We discuss how modifies the host immune landscape, which thereby necessitates alternative approaches to develop successful staphylococcal vaccines.