There is an urgent need for effective prophylactic measures against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection, particularly given the highly variable efficacy of Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG), the only licensed vaccine against tuberculosis (TB). Most studies indicate that cell-mediated immune responses involving both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells are necessary for effective immunity against Mtb. Genet...

The control of intracellular pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis is dependent on the activation and maintenance of pathogen-reactive T cells. Dendritic cells (DCs) are the major antigen-presenting cells initiating antimycobacterial T-cell responses in vivo. To investigate if immunization strategies that aim to optimize DC function can improve protective immunity against virulent mycoba...

More effective vaccines against Mycobacterium tuberculosis may contribute to the control of this major human pathogen. DNA vaccines encoding single mycobacterial proteins stimulate antimycobacterial T-cell responses and induce partial protection against M. tuberculosis in animal models. The protective efficacy of these vaccines encoding a single antigen, however, has been less than that afforde...

In an attempt to improve immune responses and protective efficacy, we constructed two recombinant bacille Calmette-Guérin (rBCG) strains expressing an 85B antigen (Ag85B) and early secreted antigenic target-6 kDa antigen (ESAT6) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) fusion protein. Both rBCG strains have the same protein insertion but in a different order (Ag85B-ESAT6 and ESAT6-Ag85B). The cultur...

Recombinant Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (rBCG) strain is the promising vaccine candidate for tuberculosis (TB) prevention, which aims at providing more enduring and enhanced protection than the parental BCG vaccine. In this study, three rBCG strains overexpressing immunodominant antigens Ag85B (rBCG::85B), Ag85A (rBCG::85A), or both (rBCG::AB) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were constructed, respec...