Abstract: Antigenic protein fragments of Streptococcus pneumoniae to be used for the preparation of a medicament for the prevention and the treatment of bacterial infections and a method for the detection thereof, and related compositions using said epitopes, are disclosed.

Abstract: Process is described for the delivery and expression of hybrid surface proteins to the surface of bacteria. The transformed bacteria are useful as vaccines, for the delivery of other active peptides to animal hosts, as diagnostic reagents and for other purposes.

Abstract: The present invention provides proteins and peptides derived from Streptococcus pneuminiae, type 3, which all the complement factor H (fH). These proteins and peptides show a homology of at least 50%, preferably at least 60%, and most preferably at least 70% with the subsequence from Thr38 to Lys 149 of the sequence disclosed herein as SEQ ID NO: 1. The above subsequence, which is located in the amino-terminal of a surface protein isolated from Streptococcus Pneuminiae, type 3, is highly associated with binding of fH. In another aspect, the invention relates to proteins and peptides showing a homology of at least 85%, preferably at least 95%, and most preferably at least 99% with the Hic protein, the amino acid sequence of which is disclosed is SEQ ID NO: 1. The invention also provides vaccine compositions comprising the above proteins and peptides.