Rationale: Immunogenicity of new tuberculosis (TB) vaccines is commonly assessed by measuring the frequency and cytokine expression profile of T cells. Objectives: We tested whether this outcome correlates with protection against childhood TB disease after newborn vaccination with bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). Methods: Whole blood from 10-week-old infants, routinely vaccinated with BCG at birth, was incubated with BCG for 12 hours, followed by cryopreservation for intracellular cytokine analysis. Infants were followed for 2 years to identify those who developed culture-positive TB-these infants were regarded as not protected against TB. Infants who did not develop TB disease despite exposure to TB in the household, and another group of randomly selected infants who were never evaluated for TB, were also identified-these groups were regarded as protected against TB. Cells from these groups were thawed, and CD4, CD8, and gd T cell-specific expression of IFN-g, TNF-a, IL-2, and IL-17 measured by flow cytometry. Measurements and Main Results: A total of 5,662 infants were enrolled; 29 unprotected and two groups of 55 protected infants were identified. There was no difference in frequencies of BCGspecific CD4, CD8, and gd T cells between the three groups of infants. Although BCG induced complex patterns of intracellular cytokine expression, there were no differences between protected and unprotected infants. Conclusions: The frequency and cytokine profile of mycobacteriaspecific T cells did not correlate with protection against TB. Critical components of immunity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, such as CD4 T cell IFN-g production, may not necessarily translate into immune correlates of protection against TB disease.

The immune response to vaccination with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), the only tuberculosis vaccine available, has not been fully characterized. We used multiparameter flow cytometry to examine specific T cell cytokine production and phenotypic profiles in blood from 10-week old infants, routinely vaccinated with BCG at birth. Ex vivo stimulation of whole blood with BCG for 12 hours induced expression of predominantly IFN-γ, IL-2 and TNF-α in CD4+ T cells, in 7 distinct cytokine combinations. IL-4 and IL-10 expression were detected in CD4+ T cells at low frequencies, and only in cells that did not co-express Type 1 cytokines. Specific CD8+ T cells were less frequent than CD4+ T cells, and produced mainly IFN-γ and/or IL-2, and less TNF-α, IL-4 and IL-10. Importantly, many mycobacteria-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells did not produce IFN-γ. The predominant phenotype of BCG-specific Type 1 T cells was that of effector cells, i.e., CD45RA–CCR7–CD27+, which may reflect persistence of M. bovis BCG in infants until 10 weeks of age. Among 5 phenotypic patterns of CD4+ T cells, central memory cells were more likely to be IL-2+, and effector cells more likely to be IFN-γ+. We concluded that neonatal vaccination with BCG induces T cells with a complex pattern of cytokine expression and phenotypes. Measuring IFN-γ production alone underestimates the magnitude and complexity of the host cytokine response to BCG vaccination, and may not be an optimal readout in studies of BCG and novel tuberculosis vaccination.

Antigen-specific proliferation is a critical function of memory T cells that is often utilised to measure vaccine immunogenicity and T cell function. We proposed that measurement of intracellular expression of the nuclear protein, Ki67, could reliably assess specific T cell proliferation in vitro.Ki67 was expressed in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells that had undergone in vitro proliferation after 6-day culture of human whole blood or PBMC with antigens. T cells cultured with no antigen did not express Ki67. When compared to current flow cytometry based proliferation assays, Ki67 detected proliferating cells with greater sensitivity than BrdU incorporation, whereas its sensitivity was similar to dye dilution of Oregon Green (OG), a CFSE derivative. Overall, the magnitude and cytokine expression profile of proliferating T cells detected by Ki67 expression correlated strongly with T cells detected with BrdU or OG. The intra-assay variability of Ki67 proliferation was 2–3% for CD4+ T cells, and 10–16% for CD8+ T cells. Finally, we demonstrate that the Ki67 assay detects tetanus toxoid-specific CD4+ T cell proliferation after infant vaccination with tetanus toxoid (TT).Overall our data suggest that intracellular Ki67 expression provides a specific, quantitative and reproducible measure of antigen-specific T cell proliferation in vitro.