Human Vaccines
Volume 6, Issue 4  April 2010
http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/vaccines/toc/volume/6/issue/3/

Special Focus Reviews
Tuberculosis vaccine development :The development of novel (preclinical) DNA vaccine
Masaji Okada and Yoko Kita

Abstract
A third of the world’s population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and 2 million people die from tuberculosis every year. The only tuberculosis vaccine currently available is an attenuated strain of Mycobacterium bovis BCG, although its efficacy against adult tuberculosis disease remains controversial. Furthermore multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is becoming big problems [a big problem] in the world. Therefore, the development of novel therapeutic vaccine as well as novel prophylactic vaccine against tuberculosis is required. This review provides a summary of novel vaccines (especially DNA vaccines) in preclinical stage using mouse, guinea pig and monkey models. In several promising novel vaccines, the studies were extended to a cynomolgus monkey model, which is currently the best animal model of human tuberculosis. The review also provides recent advances of the precise studies of induction of immunity including CD8 positive cytotoxic T cells and effector molecules such as granulysin by these vaccines, against multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and extremely drug resistant tuberculosis.

Towards new tuberculosis vaccine
Open Access Article
Stefan Svenson, Gunilla Källenius, Andrzej Pawlowski and Beston Hamasur

Abstract
According to WHO, about one third of the world’s population is infected with bacteria of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. Currently there is globally 9.15 million recorded cases of overt tuberculosis (TB) annually and due to lack of adequate diagnostics presumably a large but unknown number of non-recorded cases. TB is estimated to cause 1.65 million deaths per annum which accounts for one-fifth of all deaths by infectious diseases of adults in low-income countries. During recent years a rapid spread of multi-drug resistant bacteria causing about 0.5 million TB cases per year has worsened the problem. The live attenuated Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine which is the only currently available TB vaccine does not confer any significant protection against the most common and contagious form of TB – adult pulmonary TB.