Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology (Jan 2016)

Evaluation of immunogenicity and protective efficacy elicited by Mycobacterium bovis BCG overexpressing Ag85A protein against Mycobacterium tuberculosis aerosol infection

  • Zheng Zhong Xu,
  • Xiang eChen,
  • Ting eHu,
  • Chuang eMeng,
  • Xiao Bo Wang,
  • Yan eRao,
  • Xiao Ming Zhang,
  • Yue Lan Yin,
  • Zhi Ming Pan,
  • Xin An Jiao

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2016.00003
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6

Abstract

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Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is currently the only vaccine available against tuberculosis (TB), however, it has various levels of efficacy for preventing pulmonary TB. In this study, a recombinant BCG (rBCG::Ag85A) strain overexpressing the immunodominant Ag85A antigen was constructed, and its immunogenicity and protective efficacy were evaluated. The results showed that the Ag85A protein was successfully overexpressed in rBCG::Ag85A, the Ag85A peptide–MHC complexes on draining lymph node dendritic cells of C57BL/6 mice infected with rBCG were detectable 4 h post-infection. The C57BL/6 mice infected with this strain had stronger antigen-specific interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) responses and higher antibody titers than those immunized with BCG, and the protective experiments showed that the rBCG::Ag85A can provide higher but not significantly protective efficacy against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) H37Rv infection compared with BCG vaccine. Therefore, our results demonstrated the potential of rBCG::Ag85A as a vaccine candidate against TB.

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