POTENTIAL USE OF IL-12 AS AN ADJUVANT IN TUBERCULOSIS VACCINES

MARIA PAULA MORELLI; AMIANO NICOLAS; DEL MEDICO PAULA; JOAQUIN PELLEGRINI; N. TATEOSIAN; CALAMANTE GABRIELA; MARIA MAGDALENA GHERARDI; GARCÍA V; VERONICA E GARCIA

Congreso; LXVII REUNIÓN ANUAL DE LA SOCIEDAD ARGENTINA DE INMUNOLOGÍA; 2019

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) causes nearly 10 million of new cases of tuberculosis (TB) and 1.6 million of deaths per year. The absence of an effective vaccine, the emergency of multi-resistant Mtb strains and the lack of sensitive and fast diagnostic methods have led to the development of this global epidemic. In fact, nearly one fourth of the world population is latently infected with Mtb (LTBI) and at risk of disease reactivation (WHO 2018).At present, Mycobacterium bovis - BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin) is the only approved vaccine to be used in humans. However, although the BCG is effective in children up to 5-6 years old, it scarcely protects adults (Montagnani et al., 2014). A successful vaccine should limit the initial infection, the disease progression and the reactivation of LTBI. Tuberculosis prophylactic vaccines under development are based on the use of early secretion antigens (Ag) from replicating Mtb. However, in order to achieve the maximum protective effect in all phases of Mtb infection, multi-stage vaccines should include antigens expressed by the bacteria at the different stages (both active and latent phases) (Andersen et al., 2017). Therefore, we propose to develop a vaccine including Rv2626c, an antigen secreted during bacterial latency, and Ag85A, an protein secreted during the replicating stage of Mtb infection