As per a new research by University of Michigan scientists there could soon be the the first effective vaccine to prevent urinary tract infections.

Urinary tract infections, that affect 53 percent of all women and 14 percent of men at least once in their lives, are painful and recur all too often with no apparent cause.

U-M scientists screened thousands of bacterial proteins and identified three strong candidates to use in a vaccine to prime the body to fight Escherichia coli, the cause of most uncomplicated urinary tract infections.

The vaccine prevented infection and produced key types of immunity when tested in mice.

"The results of our study are very encouraging. We would like to connect with interested clinicians and move on to a clinical trial," says Harry L. T. Mobley, Ph.D., the study's senior author and the Frederick G. Novy Professor and chair of the U-M Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

As compared to the past attempts at developing the vaccine, U-M's potential vaccine has several strong points that may better its chances of success where other attempts have failed:

• It alerts the immune system to iron receptors on the surface of bacteria that perform a critical function allowing infection to spread.

• Administered in the nose, it induces an immune response in the body's mucosa, a first line of defense against invading pathogens. The response, also produced in mucosal tissue in the urinary tract, should help the body fight infection where it starts.

Who needs a vaccine:

UTIs are of particular concern for people with repeated infections who may develop resistance to antibiotics commonly used as treatment. Factors that heighten the need for a vaccine, at least for people at greater-than-average risk, include increasing antibiotic resistance, allergic reactions and the unhealthy effects of antibiotics on beneficial microorganisms in the gut. Infections in the upper urinary tract are a particular concern in children, who may be left with permanent kidney damage.

Four out of five uncomplicated urinary tract infections, the type that sickens otherwise healthy people, are caused by certain strains of E.coli capable of infecting the urinary tract. Other types of E. coli not implicated in urinary tract infections include those that cause food poisoning outbreaks, as well as beneficial ones that live in the digestive tract.