Landmark TB vaccine moves to final phase of human trials

The current TB vaccine has been in use for almost a century, and it is one of the most widely used vaccines in the world. Its big limitation, however, is that its efficacy in adults is minimal, especially if one has already contracted a dormant form of the disease.

The final results of a Phase 2b human trial into the efficacy of a new tuberculosis (TB) vaccine have been published, indicating safe long-term protection from the devastating disease in around half of the subjects vaccinated. The research will now move into the final phase of trials in the hopes of clinical deployment within seven to 10 years. These results don’t suggest the vaccine provides complete protection for everyone, but even at around 50 percent efficacy the treatment has the potential to save millions of lives. And importantly, the vaccine is the first to show beneficial effects in adults that already are infected with a dormant form of the disease.

“These final results show that [the vaccine] could be an important tool in the fight against pulmonary tuberculosis,” says Mark Feinberg, CEO of IAVI – a nonprofit research organization working on the development of the vaccine. “While additional trials need to be conducted to confirm these findings in other populations, we have never before seen a vaccine that provides protection in adults who are already infected with the bacteria that cause tuberculosis.”

More at https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/landmar...e2b-results-human-trials/

Intravenous TB vaccination may succeed where injections fail

Although it's crucial that people get vaccinated against tuberculosis (TB), the vaccine isn't always very effective [~50%] – at least, not when injected through the skin. New research, however, shows that it works much better when delivered directly into a vein.

The study was conducted by scientists from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. They were utilizing the only commercially-available human TB vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG). It's made of a live but weakened form of TB bacteria – Mycobacterium bovis – which occurs in cattle.

For the experiment, the researchers started with 52 macaque monkeys, and divided them into six groups. One of those groups remained unvaccinated, while the others received a standard human-dose hypodermic injection, a stronger-dose injection, [. . . omissions] and finally a shot of the stronger dose straight into a vein – intravenously, in other words.

[All strong dosed intravenous monkeys were protected but text suggests some side effects. Further tests to follow with normal dose given intravenously.]

More at: https://newatlas.com/medical/intravenous-tb-vaccination/

Test detects TB bacteria in children long before disease occurs

Because it can be difficult to detect tuberculosis in young children, the disease may be dangerously advanced by the time it's diagnosed. A new blood test, however, is claimed to detect the presence of TB-causing bacteria up to a year before the disease itself occurs. Scientists at New Orleans' Tulane University have devised a blood test that checks for a protein known as CFP-10. It's secreted by the bacteria, and may be present in the bloodstream up to 60 weeks before the child actually develops tuberculosis. Only a small blood sample is needed, as an antibody is added to enrich any CFP-10 that may be present, causing it to better show up when analyzed by a mass spectrometer.

When the technology was used to test stored blood samples that had previously been obtained from a total of 519 children, it was found to be 100 percent accurate at identifying the individuals who had been diagnosed with tuberculosis via "gold-standard" testing techniques. Additionally, it also identified 83.7 percent of the children who those traditional tests missed, but who were later diagnosed with TB by their physicians.

The scientists are now developing an inexpensive portable device that could perform the blood tests onsite, in settings such as impoverished communities where lab testing may not be available.

More at: https://newatlas.com/medical/tuberculosis-blood-test-children/