Softpedia >News >Science >Microbiology/Genetics
Softpedia Homepage   

Researchers Create New Anti-TB Vaccine

The new drug is more efficient than the one currently used

Oct 20, 2008 13:16 GMT  ·  By
Mycobacterium tuberculosis accounts for more than 2 million deaths each year, and statistics show that the numbers are constantly rising
   Mycobacterium tuberculosis accounts for more than 2 million deaths each year, and statistics show that the numbers are constantly rising

Doctors and geneticists took a huge step forward recently, with the creation of a new anti-tuberculosis (TB) vaccine that proved to be much more effective in clinical trials than the standard BCG medication currently being used. The new drug uses a weak form of a TB strain that appeared 75 years ago. The strain is still part of the modern TB "lineage" and it can kill off the infecting bacterium (mycobacterium tuberculosis), as well as the residues it leaves behind in infected bodies.

 

With tuberculosis infecting an estimated 8 million people each year, it's the most spread disease in the world, especially in developing countries. On the global scale of things, TB infects one in three people and kills 2 millions annually. These statistics only further stress the necessity of a new, more powerful vaccine against this bacterium, said lead author of the study, Daniel Hoft, M.D., Ph.D., director of the division of immunobiology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

 

The new vaccine was used on 18 clinical trial patients, with 17 more being inoculated with the standard Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) drug. Compared results showed better tolerance for the new medication, which is a recombinant vaccine, in that it uses a protein secreted by the TB strain itself to "focus" the response of the immune system on the bacterium. Overall, the new vaccine triggered a more powerful immune response than BCG, which simply means that it worked better.

 

However, this new vaccine will not be used in its current form, because researchers say it contains an antibiotic-resistant gene, which they do not want to release into the general population. Further clinical trials are underway, as the team hopes to increases the drug's powers even more, with the aid of genetic manipulation. The present experiment was just meant to test if recombinant vaccines are a good approach to the problem of tuberculosis.

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) advocates the use of anti-TB vaccines on infants all around the globe, to prevent the risks of them being infected with tuberculosis and developing medical complications afterwards. BCG currently protects against TB-related deaths and meningitis with a 70 percent efficiency rate. On the other hand, pulmonary TB is only adverted with a 50 percent efficiency rate.