Prospects for Vaccines to Protect Against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria

Abstract

Given the scope of the worldwide health problems caused by the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, tuberculosis, and malaria, it is imperative that vaccines be developed to prevent these infections. Recent advances in the understanding of these diseases suggest that T-lymphocyte-mediated immunity is important in containing these infections. The application of novel vaccine technologies for eliciting this type of immunity promises to provide successful vaccines for controlling the spread of these deadly infections.

On vaccine's adjuvants and autoimmunity: Current evidence and future perspectives

“…Alum elicits strong humoural immune responses primarily mediated by secreted antigen-specific antibodies [35,36], which are effective against diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus and hepatitis B, where neutralising antibodies to bacterial and viral antigens are required for protection [37]. In contrast, alum is a poor inducer of cell-mediated immune responses and is unsuitable for vaccines that require a strong cellular immune response [38].…”

Potential Public Health Impact of New Tuberculosis Vaccines

“…Also, we have shown that preexposure vaccines are best if they prevent infection (mechanism 1) rather than allow infection but reduce the probability of fast progression to disease (mechanism 2) or reduce the rate of progression of latently infections to disease (mechanism 3). Whether or not new TB vaccines will prevent infection from occurring is not known, but BCG is clearly not able to prevent infection, and vaccines currently in development will likely not be able to do so either (29). As new TB vaccines and other control strategies become available, their potential benefits to TB control efforts can be evaluated by mathematical modeling.…”

Identification of a Promiscuous T-Cell Epitope inMycobacterium tuberculosisMce Proteins

“…Subunit vaccines consisting of mycobacterial protein antigens represent a potential safe and specific tool for the prevention of tuberculosis. A potential limit of subunit vaccines is limited persistence in vivo, resulting in the inability to induce strong primary responses with longlived memory (18). However, it was recently shown that in mice previously immunized with BCG, memory CD4 ϩ T cells could be boosted by a protein antigen (3).…”