Novel tb vaccine protects before and after exposure: publication in Nature Medicine
Dr. Joe Cassidy, through a long-standing collaboration with the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen, is part of a multi-disciplinary research team that has developed a novel vaccine that can protect against tuberculosis (tb) both before and after individuals have become infected. The research findings, published in Nature Medicine in January (Aagaard et al., 2011), indicate that the ‘multistage’ vaccine confers efficient protection before and after exposure in a mouse model of infection and could offer more long lasting protection in humans than that currently provided by BCG.
Tuberculosis in humans is a huge global problem, particularly in developing countries, where access to antibiotics to treat the disease is limited. The disease causes symptoms such as coughing, chest pains and weight loss and, untreated, it can kill. However, only a small percentage of cases (<5%) develop these symptoms immediately after infection. In >90%, the disease becomes ‘dormant’ or ‘latent’ before reactivating years or even decades later. Current vaccines, such as BCG, work only if given before individuals become infected (typically as young children), and prevent any subsequent infection progressing to disease. They are of little use in protecting infected adults who can transmit the infection to others. The novel multistage vaccine addresses this issue by containing proteins that trigger immune responses to both the active and latent forms of tb. If successful in human trials, the new vaccine could give long-lasting immunity to previously exposed older children and adults.
Aagaard , C., Hoang , T., Dietrich , J., Cardona , J.-P., Izzo , A., Dolganov , G., Schoolnik , G.K., Cassidy , J.P., Billeskov, R., Andersen, P. 2011. A multistage tuberculosis vaccine that confers efficient protection before and after exposure. Nature Medicine,17, 189–194.