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Recent advances towards tuberculosis control: vaccines and biomarkers
Author(s) -
Weiner J.,
Kaufmann S. H. E.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of internal medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.625
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1365-2796
pISSN - 0954-6820
DOI - 10.1111/joim.12212
Subject(s) - medicine , tuberculosis , immunology , mycobacterium tuberculosis , tuberculosis vaccines , vaccination , bcg vaccine , clinical trial , adjuvant , population , immune system , virology , environmental health , pathology
Of all infectious diseases, tuberculosis ( TB ) remains one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality. Recent advances in understanding the biology of M ycobacterium tuberculosis ( M tb ) infection and the immune response of the infected host have led to the development of several new vaccines, a number of which are already undergoing clinical trials. These include pre‐exposure prime vaccines, which could replace bacille C almette– G uérin ( BCG ), and pre‐exposure booster vaccines given in addition to BCG . Infants are the target population of these two types of vaccines. In addition, several postexposure vaccines given during adolescence or adult life, in addition to BCG as a priming vaccine during infancy, are undergoing clinical testing. Therapeutic vaccines are currently being assessed for their potential to cure active TB as an adjunct to chemotherapy. BCG replacement vaccines are viable recombinant BCG or double‐deletion mutants of M tb . All booster vaccines are composed of one or several antigens, either expressed by viral vectors or formulated with adjuvants. Therapeutic vaccines are killed mycobacterial preparations. Finally, multivariate biomarkers and biosignatures are being generated from high‐throughput data with the aim of providing better diagnostic tools to specifically determine TB progression. Here, we provide a technical overview of these recent developments as well of the relevant computational approaches and highlight the obstacles that still need to be overcome.