Attenuated and recombinant mycobacterial strains as novel vaccines to control tuberculosis

结核病是一个主要的世界性健康问题。世界上大约三分之一的人口感染了导致结核病的细菌，每年导致200万人死亡。此外，感染艾滋病毒的人患肺结核的风险要大得多。唯一可用于结核病的疫苗，称为BCG，在预防疾病方面不是很有效。因此，迫切需要开发新的疫苗来帮助抗击结核病。该项目旨在开发和测试预防结核病的新型疫苗。我们将生产现有的BCG疫苗的形式，这些疫苗已经过改造，以增强免疫系统的组成部分，从而提供最佳的结核病保护。我们将测试的其他潜在疫苗与导致结核病的细菌非常相似，但经过改造，它们不会引起疾病。利用结核病的动物模型和复杂的免疫学技术，我们希望确定这些活疫苗是否可以刺激对抗结核病和预防感染所需的正确类型的免疫反应。这是一个具有国际竞争力的项目，我们的团队处于这项研究工作的最前沿。一种新的、有效的结核病疫苗将是一项重大的医学突破，代表着澳大利亚卫生和医学研究的一项重大成就。

Tuberculosis is a major worldwide health problem. Around one third of the world s population is infected with the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, which results in 2 million deaths per year. Furthermore, people infected with the AIDS virus are at a much greater risk of catching tuberculosis. The only vaccine available for tuberculosis, known as BCG, is not very effective at preventing the disease. Therefore there is an urgent need to develop new vaccines to help combat tuberculosis. This project aims to develop and test novel vaccines to prevent tuberculosis. We will produce forms of the existing BCG vaccine that have been altered to boost the components of the immune system needed to provide optimal protection against tuberculosis. Other potential vaccines that we will test are very similar to the bacterium that causes tuberculosis but have been altered such that they do not cause disease. Using animal models of tuberculosis and sophisticated immunological techniques we wish to determine if these live vaccines can stimulate the right type of immune response needed to fight tuberculosis and prevent infection. This is an internationally competitive project and our team is at the forefront of this research effort. A new, effective tuberculosis vaccine would be a major medical breakthrough and a represent a significant achievement for Australian health and medical research.