Study of the necessary immunological effector mechanisms for the development of vaccine against tuberculosis

Abstract

There is a major need for a new vaccine against tuberculosis. about 3 million people die from this disease every year, and the infection is increasingly resistant to all of the most useful antimycobacterial drugs. Although BCG vaccination is widely used, it is ineffective in some populations. Until very recently, attempts to develop subunit vaccines that might overcome the deficiencies of BCG have been unsuccessful. Now, most remarkable, we have found that even a single antigenic protein can generate strong protection in mice against challenge with virulent mycobacterium tuberculosis, provided that it is generated endogenously within the antigen-presenting cells. therefore, the research priorities of our group is: (I) to develop a subunit vaccine candidates; (II) to develop live-vectored vaccine candidates (improved BCG); (III) to develop nucleic acid vaccines against tuberculosis; (IV) to develop standard protocols to test the protective capacity of vaccine candidates in appropriate animal models; (V) and to identify immunological parameters which correlate with protective immunity against tuberculosis in humans. (AU)