TB VACCINE DEVELOPMENT IN NONHUMAN PRIMATE MODEL

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. More than 2 billion people, one-third of the world's population, are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Three million people die each year of TB. The public health problem is intensifying as the heavy use of antibiotics, particularly in AIDS patients, is leading to antibiotic resistant strains of M. tuberculosis. Existing vaccines have serious limitations. This project is determining the immunological responses of rhesus monkeys to M. tuberculosis infection, and the pathological development of disease, in more detail than has been done previously. When the immune correlates of TB have been well defined, a formulation of heat shock protein 65 (hsp65) and a plasmid containing the hsp65 DNA sequence will be encapsulated together with an immunostimulatory protein in microspheres, and tested as a vaccine. The rationale is that the plasmid will quickly exit the microspheres, integrate into host DNA, and produce hsp65, which will serve as an immunogen. Later, the hsp65 protein will be slowly released for up to 60 days, serving as antigen for a booster immunization. Based on prior experiments with mice, the vaccine is expected to have prophylactic activity and also to be capable of stimulating a more effective immune response than is normal in people who already are infected with M. tuberculosis, thereby reducing the severity of disease.