Efficiency of nanovaccines compared with antibiotic therapy in the prevention and immunomodulation of listeriosis.

Although the main antimicrobial therapy for adult and neonatal listeriosis is ampicillin, prophylactic treatments are currently lacking. We compared the efficiency of nanovaccines with prenatal or postnatal ampicillin treatments in pregnant female mice during the development of neonatal listeriosis. Nanovaccines prepared with gold nanoparticles and listeriolysin O (LLO) or glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) peptides and inoculated into pregnant females, prevented neonatal listeriosis and the appearance of comorbidities, better than pre or postnatal ampicillin treatment. Evaluation of the ability of nanovaccines as immunomodulators of blood cells in patients with listeriosis, revealed the strong and specific immunogenic capacity of the use of GAPDH nanovaccines as putative immunotherapies in listeriosis.