Vaccine against tuberculosis: what’s new?

Abstract

Backgroundone of the World Health Organization Millennium Development Goal is to reduce tuberculosis incidence by 2015. However, more of 8.5 million tuberculosis cases have been reported in 2011, with an increase of multidrug-resistant strains. Therefore, the World Health Organization target cannot be reach without the help of a vaccine able to limit the spread of tuberculosis. Nowadays, bacille Calmette-Guérin is the only vaccine available against tuberculosis. It prevents against meningeal and disseminated tuberculosis in children, but its effectiveness against pulmonary form in adolescents and adults is argued.Methoda systematic review was performed by searches of Pubmed, references of the relevant articles and Aeras and ClinicalTrial.gov websites.Results100 articles were included in this review. Three viral vectored booster vaccines, five protein adjuvant booster vaccines, two priming vaccines and two therapeutic vaccines have been analyzed.ConclusionsSeveral vaccines are in the pipeline, but further studies on basic research, clinical trial and mass vaccination campaigns are needed to achieve the TB eradication target by 2050.

Immunisation with proteins expressed during chronic murine melioidosis provides enhanced protection against disease

“…These vaccines (ID93 and H56) are currently being trialled in humans [17]. Chronic disease is an important feature of melioidosis, but the mechanisms that underlie persistence and the immune responses that develop during chronic infection are poorly characterised.…”

“…These vaccines have been shown to be effective in animal models of disease and are currently in human clinical trials [17].…”

Liposomal delivery of lipoarabinomannan triggers Mycobacterium tuberculosis specific T-cells

“…Although BCG confers protection against severe disseminated forms of tuberculosis in childhood, the efficacy against pulmonary tuberculosis in adults is limited. There are several approaches to develop new preventive vaccines and ten candidates have reached the level of clinical trials including live vaccines such as an improved BCG or genetically modified Mtb strains [3,4]. An alternative concept is to use immune-dominant antigens to booster a pre-existing BCG-induced memory.…”

Current status of new tuberculosis vaccine in children

“…65 In a Phase I clinical trial evaluating safety and immunogenicity of AdAg85A administered intramuscularly, the vaccine was found to be safe and well tolerated. 66 Although the recombinant Ad5 vaccine has shown good safety profile, the prevalence of neutralizing antibody titers against Ad5 was up to 90% in sub-Saharan Africa, which may limit the usefulness of this vaccine. 66 Concern also remains on the increased rate of HIV acquisition seen in the HIV STEP trial, and the use of intramuscular adenoviruses in areas with high HIV rates is unlikely to be acceptable.…”