JAMA
December 1, 2010, Vol 304, No. 21, pp 2323-2430
http://jama.ama-assn.org/current.dtl

Lab Reports
Tuberculosis Vaccine
JAMA. 2010;304(21):2350. doi: 10.1001/jama.2010.1715
Tracy Hampton, PhD

[First 150 words per JAMA convention]
A new tuberculosis vaccine boosts protectiveness of the current bacille-Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, which becomes less effective over time, suggest preclinical findings from scientists at the Infectious Disease Research Institute in Seattle and Colorado State University in Fort Collins (Bertholet S et al. Sci Transl Med. 2010;2[53]:53ra74).

The new vaccine consists of a single recombinant fusion protein produced from 4 Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) antigens from Mtb protein families associated with virulence or latency.

The vaccine induced CD4 T helper type 1 cell responses and led to a reduction in the number of bacteria in the lungs of vaccinated mice that were challenged with virulent or multidrug-resistant Mtb strains, prevented the death of guinea pigs that were vaccinated and subsequently challenged with virulent Mtb, and elicited CD4 and CD8 T cell responses in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells from BCG-vaccinated or Mtb -exposed individuals.

The results support testing the vaccine …