Advances in tuberculosis vaccine strategies

Yasir Skeiky and Jerry Sadoff outline the current state of play in the development of effective vaccines against Mycobacterium tuberculosis . Promising strategies include the use of modified recombinant BCG, live attenuated M. tuberculosis and subunit vaccines alone or in prime?boost regimens to optimize immunity and vaccine safety. Tuberculosis (TB), an ancient human scourge, is a growing health problem in the developing world. Approximately two million deaths each year are caused by TB, which is the leading cause of death in HIV-infected individuals. Clearly, an improved TB vaccine is desperately needed. Heterologous prime?boost regimens probably represent the best hope for an improved vaccine regimen to prevent TB. This first generation of new vaccines might also complement drug treatment regimens and be effective against reactivation of TB from the latent state, which would significantly enhance their usefulness.