Vaccines in Space
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.
