Recombinant immunodominant mycobacterial antigens are needed for the development of new vaccines and immunodiagnostic tools for use against tuberculosis. Ubiquitous exposure to mycobacteria in tropical countries could influence vaccine-induced immunity and the specificity of tuberculosis immunodiagnosis. For this study conducted in The Gambia, cellular immune responses to recombinant mycobacter...

Monospecific antibodies have been successfully utilized in antigen detection, which is better indicator of active infection. Mycobacterium tuberculosis excretory secretory (M tb ES) antigens such as ES 31, ES 41 and ES 43 (31 kDa, 41 kDa and 43 kDa protein, respectively) have been shown to be present in Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra culture filtrate and are of diagnostic interest. To study t...

One of the most significant developments in the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) infection has been the introduction of whole-blood based interferon-γ release assays (IGRAs) [1–3]. IGRAs, commercially available as QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube test (QFT) (QIAGEN, Germantown, MD, USA) and T-SPOT.TB (Oxford Immunotec Ltd, Abingdon, UK), are based on the detection of a T-cell immune response towards R...

A comprehensive analysis of culture supernatant (CSN) proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv was accomplished by combination of two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE), mass spectrometry, and N-terminal sequencing by Edman degradation. Analytical 2-DE gels resolved approximately 1250 protein spots from CSN of M. tuberculosis H37Rv, 381 of which were identified by mass spectrometry and/or E...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the causative agent of tuberculosis, a disease that affects one-third of the world's population. The sole extant vaccine for tuberculosis is the live attenuated Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG). We examined 13 representative BCG strains from around the world to ascertain their ability to express DosR-regulated dormancy antigens. These are known to...

The tuberculin skin test currently used to diagnose infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis has poor diagnostic value, especially in geographic areas where the prevalence of tuberculosis is low or where the environmental burden of saprophytic, nontuberculous mycobacteria is high. Inaccuracy of the tuberculin skin test often reflects a low diagnostic specificity due to the presence in tubercul...

DNA vaccine may be a promising tool for controlling tuberculosis development. However, vaccines encoding single antigens of mycobacterium did not produce protective effect as BCG did. In the present study, we evaluated the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a divalent DNA vaccine encoding two immunodominant antigens Ag85B and MPT64 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We found that both humora...

Tuberculosis continues to be a worldwide problem for both humans and animals. The development of tests to differentiate between infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Mycobacterium bovis and vaccination with M. bovis BCG could greatly assist in the diagnosis of early infection as well as enhance the use of tuberculosis vaccines on a wider scale. Recombinant forms of four major secreted pr...

Drug resistance (especially multiple drug resistance) in Mycobacterium tuberculosis makes global concerns in treatment and control of tuberculosis. Rapid diagnosis of drug resistant strains of the bacteria has vital importance in the prognosis of the disease. The aim of this study was to identify the mutations responsible for drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains derived from pa...

Tests based on tuberculin purified protein derivative (PPD) cannot distinguish between tuberculosis infection, Mycobacterium bovis BCG vaccination, or exposure to environmental mycobacteria. The present study investigated the diagnostic potential of two Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific antigens (ESAT-6 and CFP10) in experimental animals as well as during natural infection in humans and cattl...