The limited efficacy of the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis is partly due to the missing expression of immunogenic proteins. We analyzed whether the addition to BCG of ESAT-6 and HspX, two Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) antigens, could enhance its capacity to activate human dendritic cells (DCs). BCG showed a weak ability to induce DC maturation, cytokine release, and CD4(+) lymphocytes and ...

T cell responses to ESAT-6 and culture filtrate protein 10 (CFP-10), antigens expressed by Mycobacterium tuberculosis but not by M. bovis bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), were found to discriminate reliably between infection with M. tuberculosis and BCG vaccination. Because the esat-6 and cfp-10 genes occur in M. kansasii and M. marinum, T cell responses to ESAT-6 and CFP-10 were investigated in ...

We sought to understand the persistence and relevance of the long-lived immune response to early secretory antigenic target (ESAT-6) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in humans. ESAT-6 is recognized by memory cells involved in protection of animals against tuberculosis (TB). Recent reports also showed that ESAT-6 response can be recovered in patients with TB and in those soon after anti-TB therapy....

BACKGROUND Tuberculosis is a disease with high morbidity, caused mainly by Mycobaterium tuberculosis (M.tb.). DNA vaccines show a promising future due to their unique advantages over conventional methods. The early-secreted antigen target (ESAT)-6 and culture filtrate protein (CFP)-10 of M.tb. antigens have been identified as vaccine candidates against Mycobacteria and used as subunit vaccines,...

The purified protein derivative (PPD) skin test for Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection lacks specificity. We assessed 2 more specific M. tuberculosis antigens (ESAT-6 and CFP-10) by enzyme-linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT) compared with PPD by ELISPOT and skin test in The Gambia. Of 735 household contacts of 130 sputum smear-positive tuberculosis cases, 476 (65%) tested positive by PPD ELISPO...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis secretes ESAT-6, a virulence factor that triggers cell-mediated immune responses and IFN-gamma production during tuberculosis. ESAT-6 is transported across the bacterial envelope by a specialized secretion system with a FSD (FtsK-SpoIIIE domain) membrane protein. Although the presence of ESAT-6-like genes has been identified in the genomes of other microbes, the possi...

In speaker adaptation for HMM-based speech synthesis, model adaptation and adaptive training techniques play key roles. For reducing dependency on an initial model and adapting the model to wide-ranging target speakers, we propose speaker adaptation and adaptive training algorithms based on ESAT algorithm for HMM-based speech synthesis. The ESAT algorithm estimates contributing rate of several ...

In this issue of the Journal of Bacteriology, Chen and colleagues (1) report a novel observation regarding the mycobacterial ESX-1 (ESAT-6 system-1/type VII) protein secretion system. Although the mechanisms underlying their observations are not yet understood, their exciting results unlink the in vitro secretion of the two major ESX-1 substrates, ESAT-6 (EsxA) and CFP-10 (EsxB), from M. tuberc...

RNA-seq protocols that focus on transcript termini are well suited for applications in which template quantity is limiting. Here we show that, when applied to end-sequencing data, analytical methods designed for global RNA-seq produce computational artifacts. To remedy this, we created the End Sequence Analysis Toolkit (ESAT). As a test, we first compared end-sequencing and bulk RNA-seq using R...

Mycobacterium kansasii consists of 5 genetically distinct groups, of which 2 are associated with human disease. Determinants of the differences in virulence are unknown. Potential genes of interest are esat-6 and cfp-10, which are associated with virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis but are lacking in bacille Calmette-Guérin and in most environmental mycobacteria (M. ...