<p>In a breakthrough, US researchers have found that an improved tuberculosis vaccine can offer strong protection against leprosy.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"This is the first study demonstrating that an improved vaccine against tuberculosis also offers cross-protection against Mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of leprosy," said Marcus A. Horwitz, a professor of medicine and microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics from University of California Los Angeles.<br /><br />That means that this vaccine has promise for better protecting against both major diseases at the same time.<br /><br />"It also demonstrates that boosting a recombinant BCG vaccine further improves cross-protection against leprosy," Horwitz added. In many parts of the world, leprosy and tuberculosis live side-by-side.<br /><br />Worldwide, there are approximately 233,000 new cases of leprosy per year, with nearly all of them occurring where tuberculosis is endemic. The currently available century-old vaccine Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) provides only partial protection against both tuberculosis and leprosy.<br /><br />In lab experiments over mice, researchers found that rBCG30, a recombinant variant of BCG that overexpresses a highly abundant 30 kDa protein of the tuberculosis bacterium known as Antigen 85B, is superior to BCG in protecting against tuberculosis in animal models, and also cross protects against leprosy.<br /><br />In addition, they found that boosting rBCG30 with the antigen 85B protein - a protein also expressed by the leprosy bacillus - provides considerably stronger protection against leprosy. The next step is to test the rBCG30 vaccine for efficacy in humans against TB.<br /><br />"If it is effective against TB, then the next step would be to test its effectiveness in humans against leprosy," Horwitz noted in a paper published in the journal Infection and Immunity.</p>
<p>In a breakthrough, US researchers have found that an improved tuberculosis vaccine can offer strong protection against leprosy.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"This is the first study demonstrating that an improved vaccine against tuberculosis also offers cross-protection against Mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of leprosy," said Marcus A. Horwitz, a professor of medicine and microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics from University of California Los Angeles.<br /><br />That means that this vaccine has promise for better protecting against both major diseases at the same time.<br /><br />"It also demonstrates that boosting a recombinant BCG vaccine further improves cross-protection against leprosy," Horwitz added. In many parts of the world, leprosy and tuberculosis live side-by-side.<br /><br />Worldwide, there are approximately 233,000 new cases of leprosy per year, with nearly all of them occurring where tuberculosis is endemic. The currently available century-old vaccine Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) provides only partial protection against both tuberculosis and leprosy.<br /><br />In lab experiments over mice, researchers found that rBCG30, a recombinant variant of BCG that overexpresses a highly abundant 30 kDa protein of the tuberculosis bacterium known as Antigen 85B, is superior to BCG in protecting against tuberculosis in animal models, and also cross protects against leprosy.<br /><br />In addition, they found that boosting rBCG30 with the antigen 85B protein - a protein also expressed by the leprosy bacillus - provides considerably stronger protection against leprosy. The next step is to test the rBCG30 vaccine for efficacy in humans against TB.<br /><br />"If it is effective against TB, then the next step would be to test its effectiveness in humans against leprosy," Horwitz noted in a paper published in the journal Infection and Immunity.</p>