Bordetella pertussis, the etiologic agent of whooping cough, is a highly infectious human pathogen with a strong capacity to infect the human respiratory tract (Kerr and Matthews, 2000). It is presently one of the ten most common causes of death from infectious disease, reported by the World Health Organization to cause 50 million cases per year (Kerr and Matthews, 2000). Infection occurs primarily in the unvaccinated populations in developing countries. While once effectively controlled in industrialized countries through vaccination, pertussis cases have been rebounding in the last ten years, due to decreased vaccination, antigenic drift (deMelker et al., 2000; Mooi et al., 2001) and transmission from adult reservoirs (Anonymous, 1995b; Deen et al., 1995; Senzilet et al., 2001). Thus, there is a need in the art for effective treatments of diseases caused by the Bordetella pertussis bacterium. Provided herein are methods and compositions addressing these and other needs in the art.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds