Room 4012-MDCL, McMaster Immunology Research Centre & Department of Pathology & Molecular Medicine, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1, Canada.
Expert Rev Vaccines. 2012 Jan;11(1):35-8. doi: 10.1586/erv.11.164.
Pulmonary TB remains a global health threat. Prophylactic immunization with Mycobacterium bovis BCG is the only key strategy to control TB. Ineffectiveness of BCG immunization in TB-endemic areas and BCG-related safety issues in HIV-positive infants have prompted the development of new TB vaccines. As enhanced understanding of the immune evasion mechanism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis will help develop new vaccines, Sweeney et al. studied the role of the esx-3 locus in mycobacterial pathogenesis. They have identified a previously unappreciated function of the esx-3 locus in innate immune evasion. They further discovered that Mycobacterium smegmatis with the esx-3 genes deleted could function as a novel vaccine vector with an enhanced innate immune-activating property. This vector, when engineered to express M. tuberculosis esx-3, was found to be a potent TB vaccine capable of a level of protection superior to that of BCG when administered via the intravenous route.
肺结核仍然是全球健康威胁。用牛分枝杆菌 BCG 进行预防性免疫接种是控制结核病的唯一关键策略。BCG 免疫在结核病流行地区的效果不佳，以及 HIV 阳性婴儿中与 BCG 相关的安全问题，促使人们开发新的结核病疫苗。由于对结核分枝杆菌免疫逃逸机制的深入了解将有助于开发新疫苗，因此 Sweeney 等人研究了 esx-3 基因座在分枝杆菌发病机制中的作用。他们发现了 esx-3 基因座在固有免疫逃避中的一个以前未被认识到的功能。他们进一步发现，缺失 esx-3 基因的耻垢分枝杆菌可以作为一种新型疫苗载体，具有增强的固有免疫激活特性。当该载体被设计为表达结核分枝杆菌 esx-3 时，发现它是一种有效的结核病疫苗，当通过静脉途径给药时，其保护水平优于 BCG。
