Antigen identification strategies and preclinical evaluation models for advancing tuberculosis vaccine development

Saurabh Chugh; Ritika Kar Bahal; Rohan Dhiman; Ramandeep Singh

doi:10.1038/s41541-024-00834-y

Antigen identification strategies and preclinical evaluation models for advancing tuberculosis vaccine development

NPJ Vaccines. 2024 Mar 9;9(1):57. doi: 10.1038/s41541-024-00834-y.

Authors

Saurabh Chugh^#¹, Ritika Kar Bahal^#², Rohan Dhiman³, Ramandeep Singh⁴

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Tuberculosis Research, Tuberculosis Research Laboratory, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad, 121001, Haryana, India.
² Marshall Centre, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
³ Laboratory of Mycobacterial Immunology, Department of Life Science, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, 769008, Odisha, India.
⁴ Centre for Tuberculosis Research, Tuberculosis Research Laboratory, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad, 121001, Haryana, India. ramandeep@thsti.res.in.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

In its myriad devastating forms, Tuberculosis (TB) has existed for centuries, and humanity is still affected by it. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis), the causative agent of TB, was the foremost killer among infectious agents until the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the key healthcare strategies available to reduce the risk of TB is immunization with bacilli Calmette-Guerin (BCG). Although BCG has been widely used to protect against TB, reports show that BCG confers highly variable efficacy (0-80%) against adult pulmonary TB. Unwavering efforts have been made over the past 20 years to develop and evaluate new TB vaccine candidates. The failure of conventional preclinical animal models to fully recapitulate human response to TB, as also seen for the failure of MVA85A in clinical trials, signifies the need to develop better preclinical models for TB vaccine evaluation. In the present review article, we outline various approaches used to identify protective mycobacterial antigens and recent advancements in preclinical models for assessing the efficacy of candidate TB vaccines.

Publication types

Review