Dannenberg A M, Bishai W R, Parrish N, Ruiz R, Johnson W, Zook B C, Boles J W, Pitt L M
Departments of Environmental Health Sciences, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, International Health and/or Epidemiology, School of Hygiene and Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Vaccine. 2000 Nov 22;19(7-8):796-800. doi: 10.1016/s0264-410x(00)00300-5.
Tuberculosis (TB) kills more people in the world today than any other infectious disease, and the number of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates is increasing. Vaccines, better than most of the currently available strains of bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), are urgently needed to control this disease. TB in rabbits resembles human TB more closely than TB in any other common laboratory animal and a most pertinent method of assessing vaccine efficacy is Lurie's tubercle count method in this species. Vaccinated and control rabbits were infected by aerosol with virulent human-type tubercle bacilli (H37Rv). At necropsy 5 weeks thereafter, the grossly visible primary tubercles in the entire lung were counted. A decrease in the number of such tubercles is a quantitative measure of vaccine efficacy: An effective vaccine prevents microscopic tubercles from growing to grossly visible (clinically apparent) size. The Pasteur substrain of BCG and two substrains of Mycobacterium microti (the vole bacillus) reduced the number of visible primary tubercles an average of 75%, whereas three other substrains of BCG and three other substrains of vole bacilli only reduced the number an average of 40%. These initial studies indicate that Lurie's tubercle-count method in rabbits is a precise way to choose the best available tuberculosis vaccines.
如今，结核病在全球造成的死亡人数超过其他任何一种传染病，而且耐多药结核分枝杆菌分离株的数量正在增加。迫切需要比目前大多数卡介苗（BCG）菌株更好的疫苗来控制这种疾病。兔结核病比其他任何常见实验动物的结核病更类似于人类结核病，而评估疫苗效力最相关的方法是该物种的卢里结核计数法。给接种疫苗的兔子和对照兔子通过气溶胶感染强毒力的人型结核杆菌（H37Rv）。此后5周进行尸检时，对整个肺中肉眼可见的原发性结核结节进行计数。此类结核结节数量的减少是疫苗效力的一种定量衡量标准：有效的疫苗可防止微观结核结节生长到肉眼可见（临床上明显）的大小。卡介苗的巴斯德亚菌株和两种微小分枝杆菌（田鼠杆菌）亚菌株使可见原发性结核结节的数量平均减少了75%，而其他三种卡介苗亚菌株和其他三种田鼠杆菌亚菌株仅使数量平均减少了40%。这些初步研究表明，兔的卢里结核计数法是选择现有最佳结核病疫苗的精确方法。
