Abstract
Changes in the virulence of microorganisms during spaceflight have been proposed as a tool to provide insights into virulence that can be leveraged to generate attenuated variants for vaccines. As a vaccine, attenuated pathogens prime the adaptive immune response to generate memory cells that can generate protective responses in the case of subsequent exposure to a virulent version of the pathogen. Measuring the virulence of space-flown microorganisms poses multiple challenges including the decision of whether to assay virulence of flown organisms in ground-based assays or assay virulence during spaceflight. The C. elegans challenge model offers particular advantages for spaceflight-based assays. In general, most of the microorganisms studied have not shown increased virulence in spaceflight.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National Aeronautics and Space Association Grants NNX13AN32G and NNX12AM93G and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Contents do not represent the view of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States of America.
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Hammond, T.G., Birdsall, H.H. (2019). Vaccines in Space. In: Pathak, Y., Araújo dos Santos, M., Zea, L. (eds) Handbook of Space Pharmaceuticals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50909-9_7-1
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