title: Panton-Valentine leukocidin antibodies for the treatment of MRSA skin infections?
abstract: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has recently caused epidemic outbreaks of community-associated (CA) skin infections. The infecting strains frequently contain the genes encoding the staphylococcal toxin, Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL). On that ground, the use of PVL-based vaccines has been proposed for the treatment of CA-MRSA infections, despite experimental and epidemiological evidence that does not support a major role of the PVL toxin in CA-MRSA skin disease. Hermos et al. show that antibodies to PVL do not protect from CA-MRSA skin infections in children, strongly suggesting that PVL-based immunization is of little benefit for this most frequent disease caused by CA-MRSA.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Human Bacterial Pathogenesis, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, The National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. motto@niaid.nih.gov
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Otto