Exposure to human alveolar lining fluid enhances Mycobacterium bovis BCG vaccine efficacy against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in a CD8⁺ T-cell-dependent manner.

ABSTRACT: Current tuberculosis (TB) treatments include chemotherapy and preventative vaccination with Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). In humans, however, BCG vaccination fails to fully protect against pulmonary TB. Few studies have considered the impact of the human lung mucosa (alveolar lining fluid (ALF)), which modifies the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) cell wall, revealing alternate antigenic epitopes on the bacterium surface that alter its pathogenicity. We hypothesized that ALF-induced modification of BCG would induce better protection against aerosol infection with M.tb. Here we vaccinated mice with ALF-exposed BCG, mimicking the mycobacterial cell surface properties that would be present in the lung during M.tb infection. ALF-exposed BCG-vaccinated mice were more effe

SUBMITTER: Moliva JI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5860920 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature