Abstract 1551 Enhancing the Immunogenicity of Extracellular Vesicle-based Vaccines Against Pathogenic NTHi Bacteria

Acute otitis media (AOM) disease, or ear infections, are highly prevalent in children, with nearly 80% experiencing at least one AOM by age three. As such, there is an urgent need for a vaccine against Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi), the main causative agent of AOM in the US. Most vaccines contain multiple antigens from the pathogen to avoid immune escape, inducing an immune response and antibodies to those antigens. Here, we describe a novel approach to creating a vaccine against NTHi, incorporating a unique fused trivalent protein (Tri), featuring three NTHi antigens (OMP26, P6, and protein F) in a single peptide chain and an N-terminal signal sequence, in a membrane-bound extracellular vesicle (EV) produced by Escherichia coli (E.