A review of vaccine research and development: tuberculosis.

Substantial progress has been made during the past 15 years towards the development of improved vaccines for tuberculosis. This is due to advances in the characterization of genes and antigens of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb), aided by the availability of genome sequences of different mycobacterial species and M. tb isolates and to greater understanding of protective immune responses to the pathogen in both animals and humans. More than one hundred candidate vaccines have been tested in animal models, representing all of the major vaccine design strategies, and some have now moved into clinical trials. This review summarizes recent advances in tuberculosis vaccine development.