Adjunct immunotherapy with Ag85 complex proteins based subunit vaccine in a murine model of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection

摘要

Tuberculosis is one of the most important life-threatening bacterial diseases in the world today. Despite the fact that efficient chemotherapy was established many years ago, tuberculosis remains an expanding global health crisis, causing four deaths every minute worldwide [1]. One of the main reasons for the current failure to control tuberculosis is that, even using the best chemotherapy regimen, treatment must be continued for at least 6 months. This treatment regimen is not a realistic proposition in most developing countries as patients feel well after a few weeks and stop taking the drugs, provoking disease recurrences and multidrug resistance. One possible alternative to resolve this problem is the design of short chemotherapy regimens, using conventional antibiotics supplemented with immunotherapy that would provide realistic tuberculosis control, particularly in the developing world.