Naked DNA In New Tuberculosis Vaccine

11 August 1996

Research has shown that mice can be protected against tuberculosis when injected with naked DNA, according to results from two studies presented in the August edition of Nature Medicine. In addition, this approach seemed as effective as the current TB vaccine, bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG), which was introduced in 1908.

A study conducted by Douglas Lowrie et al of the UK-based National Institute for Medical Research, utilized a vaccine with DNA from the leprosy-causing agent Mycobacterium leprae, a relative of the TB mycobacterium. A section of DNA that enables the bacterium to manufacture a protein called hsp65 was isolated and injected straight into the mice, without the use of vectors commonly used in gene therapy to carry material to the required target.

The mice muscle cells began to produce the protein independently, presenting fragments of it on their dendritic cells. This presentation stimulates the immune system to mount both a cellular and humoral response against the foreign material, producing antibodies that recognize the molecule, enabling the mice to become immune to the protein hsp65. The mice are then able to counteract a subsequent inoculation with M tuberculosis which carries the same protein. Interestingly, if the protein alone is injected into the muscles then an immune response is not seen, and TB is not prevented. The precise mode of vaccine action is not known.

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