TB or not TB…that is the question

Tuberculosis is an often deadly infectious disease usually attacking the lungs. However, it can also affect the central nervous system, the lymphatic system, the circulatory system, bones, joints, and even the skin. TB is the second most lethal infection in the world, killing two million people a year and it is rivaled only by HIV. TB prevention and control takes two similar approaches. The first approach entails identifying people with TB and treating them. In the second approach, children are vaccinated to protect them from TB. Unfortunately, no vaccine is available that provides reliable protection for adults, until now. The first adult TB vaccine clinical trials on humans are set to start in Canada this April. Canadian researchers plan to recruit nearly fifty healthy volunteers between 18 and 55 years old to take part in the first trials to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine against TB in adult humans. The vaccine was designed at McMaster University in Canada, which is where the trials will also take place. Research and design efforts were led by Zhou Xing, a professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at the University. Fiona Smaill, a chair of the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine says, "The exciting thing for McMaster is that this is translational research that has gone from the basic science where the vector has been designed here at McMaster, then manufactured here, with all the pre-clinical studies done at McMaster." World TB day is on March 24, which was also the day they announced the TB vaccine trials. World TB Day was a day that researchers raised awareness of tuberculosis. Genetically modified adenovirus was used to develop the TB vaccine. The TB vaccine is known as AdAg85A. Animal studies have already been conducted by the researchers, and very promising results were found. By removing a portion of the adenovirus gene, and inserting the TB gene that boosts immunity, the researchers found that the body could manufacture a “natural immunity” to tuberculosis. The adenovirus is used like a carrier to introduce the vaccine into the body. Once the cold virus is introduced, the TB gene remains to produce immunity. Hopefully the promising results will continue in the human trials, after twenty years of groundwork against tuberculosis.

http://www.emaxhealth.com/1020/95/30028/first-human-tb-vaccine-trials-launch-canada.html