MINI REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Vaccines and Molecular Therapeutics
Development of Human Mycoplasma Vaccines: Navigating the IL-17A Paradox
Provisionally accepted
- 1University Library, Xiangnan University, Chenzhou, China
- 2The First People's Hospital of Changde City, Changde, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Despite decades of effort, effective vaccines against pathogenic human mycoplasmas remain elusive, largely due to vaccine-enhanced disease (VED). Recent discoveries highlight the paradoxical role of interleukin-17A (IL-17A) as both protector and instigator of pathology. Although IL-17A is indispensable for mucosal defense against many pathogens, its dysregulated expression following mycoplasma vaccination can provoke excessive neutrophilic inflammation and exacerbate pulmonary injury. This review synthesizes emerging evidence implicating bacterial lipoproteins as key triggers of maladaptive IL-17A responses. We delineate the duality of IL-17A in mycoplasma infections, mediating both protection and tissue damage, and critically examine its implications for vaccine design. Integrating insights from recent animal models, B-cell depletion studies, and proteomic analyses, we propose a framework for next-generation vaccines that elicit protective immunity while circumventing IL-17A-driven immunopathology.
Keywords: Mycoplasmas, Interleukin-17A (IL-17A), Vaccines, vaccine-enhanced disease (VED), antibody
Received: 08 Oct 2025; Accepted: 21 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Guo, Zhang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Fangyi Guo, guofy97@163.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.