from E. Diane Williamson and Petra C.F. Oyston writing in Yersinia: Systems Biology and Control:
In this review we review the progress to date on the development of acellular vaccines to protect against plague; we examine the pathogenicity of the causative organism and how an understanding of this has led to the identification of these new vaccine candidates. The approaches available to demonstrate the potential benefit arising from the use of such candidate vaccines in a human population, where vaccine efficacy in man cannot be determined directly, are discussed. The concept of deriving immune correlates of protective efficacy in authentic animal models of the human disease and then identifying surrogate markers of protection for application to clinical trials is discussed, together with an assessment of the prospects ultimately for eventual vaccine licensure. We explore the potential impact of candidate vaccines on disease occurrence, particularly the likelihood of achieving defined sub-unit vaccines which provide prophylaxis against pneumonic plague, since this represents a new capability against the most hazardous form of the disease.
Further reading: Yersinia: Systems Biology and Control