Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major cause of pneumoniae,
meningitis, and major cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world by bacterial
otitis media, pneumoniae,
meningitis, and bacteraemia. It is an important agent of
disease in man especially among infants, the elderly and immunocompromised persons. The present invention provides a solution to this problem by providing a substantially pure or isolated
disease related
antigen selected from the group consisting of the isolated, recombinant or synthetic S. pneumoniae human immunogenic antigens of SP_0562, SP_0965, SP_0082 (in particular the fragments SP4 and SP 17 of said SP_0082), and a Periplasmic
Binding Protein (PBP) (in particular SP_1683 or SP_1386), or a fragments thereof or substantially identical
antigen for use in a treatment to induce a
immunological memory in a human against S. pneumoniae cells for use in a
vaccination treatment of S. pneumoniae disorder in human or against S. pneumoniae in a human. In a particular embodiment, the present invention provides an isolated, recombinant or synthetic S. pneumoniae Periplasmic
Binding Protein (PBP) (in particular SP_1683 or SP_1386) as a
disease related
antigen for use in a treatment to induce a
immunological memory in a human against S. pneumoniae cells for use in a
vaccination treatment of S. pneumoniae disorder in human or for use in the treatment of an S. pnewnoniae infection in a human. It further provides antibodies that specifically bind to the S. pneumoniae disease related antigens identified herein for use in the treatment of a an S. pneumoniae infection in a human, such as for example in a treatment to induce
immunological memory in a human against S. pneumoniae, i.e. in a
vaccination treatment of S. pneumoniae. It is also an aspect of the present invention to provide the use of any one of the S. pneumoniae disease related antigens as identified herein, or of the antibodies specific for said antigens in methods to diagnose for a S. pneumoniae disorder in a human.