Immunotherapy Approaches for Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections
Summary
Recurrent urinary tract infections (rUTIs) impose a significant burden on global health, with rising antibiotic resistance and disrupted microbiota driving the search for alternative strategies. Immunotherapy harnesses the host’s immune system to prevent or attenuate infections, focusing on vaccines or immune stimulants that prime mucosal defences and promote pathogen clearance. Sublingual and oral bacterial preparations aim to engage dendritic cells in the oral mucosa, yielding systemic and local Th1/Th17 responses that inhibit uropathogen colonisation. Parenteral formulations target systemic immunity, while autovaccines derived from patient-specific bacterial isolates offer personalised prophylaxis against multidrug-resistant strains. These approaches seek not only to reduce UTI incidence but also to diminish antibiotic consumption, protect commensal flora and lower healthcare costs. Advances in characterising uropathogen antigens and in understanding bladder mucosal immunology underpin the development of more effective and broadly protective immunotherapies, with the ultimate goal of establishing non-antibiotic prophylaxis as a standard of care for individuals with rUTIs.
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Immunotherapy Approaches for Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in immunotherapy approaches for recurrent urinary tract infections across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Sublingual immunisation: Delivery of antigens beneath the tongue to stimulate mucosal and systemic immune responses.
Th1/Th17 response: Subtypes of T helper cells that produce interferon-γ and interleukin-17, critical for defence against intracellular and extracellular bacteria.
Autovaccine: A personalised vaccine prepared from inactivated bacteria isolated from the patient’s own infection episodes.
Polyvalent bacterial preparation: A vaccine composed of multiple inactivated bacterial strains to broaden antigenic coverage.
Mucosal immunity: Immune protection at mucous membrane surfaces, involving secretory antibodies and tissue-resident lymphocytes.
References
- MV140, a sublingual polyvalent bacterial preparation to treat recurrent urinary tract infections, licenses human dendritic cells for generating Th1, Th17, and IL-10 responses via Syk and MyD88. Mucosal Immunology (2016).
- An Effective Sublingual Vaccine, MV140, Safely Reduces Risk of Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection in Women. Pathogens (2023).
- Immunoprophylaxis with MV140 Is Effective in the Reduction of Urinary Tract Infections—A Prospective Real-Life Study. Vaccines (2024).
- Reshaping Resistance: How Autovaccine Therapy Alters the Course of Recurrent Multidrug-Resistant Urinary Tract Infections. Life (2025).
- Evaluation of a therapeutic vaccine for the prevention of recurrent urinary tract infections versus prophylactic treatment with antibiotics. International Urogynecology Journal (2012).
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