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Review
. 2023 May 22;11(5):1013.
doi: 10.3390/vaccines11051013.

Vaccines against Tuberculosis: Where Are We Now?

Shruti Srivastava  1 , Sajal Dey  2   3 , Sangita Mukhopadhyay  2
Affiliations
Review

Vaccines against Tuberculosis: Where Are We Now?

Shruti Srivastava et al. Vaccines (Basel). .

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is among the top 10 leading causes of death in low-income countries. Statistically, TB kills more than 30,000 people each week and leads to more deaths than any other infectious disease, such as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and malaria. TB treatment is largely dependent on BCG vaccination and impacted by the inefficacy of drugs, absence of advanced vaccines, misdiagnosis improper treatment, and social stigma. The BCG vaccine provides partial effectiveness in demographically distinct populations and the prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB incidences demands the design of novel TB vaccines. Various strategies have been employed to design vaccines against TB, such as: (a) The protein subunit vaccine; (b) The viral vector vaccine; (c) The inactivation of whole-cell vaccine, using related mycobacteria, (d) Recombinant BCG (rBCG) expressing Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) protein or some non-essential gene deleted BCG. There are, approximately, 19 vaccine candidates in different phases of clinical trials. In this article, we review the development of TB vaccines, their status and potential in the treatment of TB. Heterologous immune responses generated by advanced vaccines will contribute to long-lasting immunity and might protect us from both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant TB. Therefore, advanced vaccine candidates need to be identified and developed to boost the human immune system against TB.

Keywords: Bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG); Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb); clinical trial; immune responses; public health; tuberculosis; vaccines.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Clinical trial status of vaccine candidates against tuberculosis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Stages of TB vaccine administration: TB has variability in disease manifestations; thus, there should be vaccine candidates that can be used specifically against TB symptoms rather than a general vaccine, i.e., BCG.
Figure 3
Figure 3
An overview of various factors and stakeholders across the globe involved in the vaccine development program.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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