Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

In search of a new paradigm for protective immunity to TB

2014; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 12; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/nrmicro3230

1740-1534

Cláudio Nunes-Alves, Matthew G. Booty, Stephen M. Carpenter, Pushpa Jayaraman, Alissa C. Rothchild, Samuel M. Behar,

vaccines and immunoinformatics approaches

Protective immunity against tuberculosis is multifactorial, and correlates of protection — either during natural infection or after vaccination — are lacking. Here, Behar and colleagues discuss why it is time to look beyond interferon-γ for protective mechanisms againstMycobacterium tuberculosis. Clinical trials of vaccines against Mycobacterium tuberculosis are well under way and results are starting to come in. Some of these results are not so encouraging, as exemplified by the latest Aeras-422 and MVA85A trials. Other than empirically determining whether a vaccine reduces the number of cases of active tuberculosis, which is a daunting prospect given the chronic nature of the disease, we have no way of assessing vaccine efficacy. Therefore, investigators seek to identify biomarkers that predict vaccine efficacy. Historically, focus has been on the production of interferon-γ by CD4+ T cells, but this has not been a useful correlate of vaccine-induced protection. In this Opinion article, we discuss recent advances in our understanding of the immune control of M. tuberculosis and how this knowledge could be used for vaccine design and evaluation.