Immunobiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Its Implication in Vaccine Design

Dear Colleagues,

Tuberculosis (TB) has been a disease in humans since the earliest days of civilization, and it remains a leading cause of mortality due to microbial infection worldwide. The Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) strain of Mycobacterium bovis, developed a century ago, is the only approved TB vaccine currently in use. BCG protects against meningitis and the disseminated forms of TB in children but is ineffective against adult pulmonary TB, the contagious form that is responsible for infecting almost 2 billion people throughout the world and resulting in more than 1 million deaths annually. Enormous efforts have been implemented through the years to develop an efficacious TB vaccine, and we urgently need to achieve this goal. Understanding the immunobiology of TB is a crucial part of the effort of developing vaccines to control and eliminate the global TB pandemic. In recent years, there has been substantial progress in the field of TB research towards understanding the immune response to BCG vaccination or Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infections. Relatively recent studies of note include human clinical trials on BCG re-vaccination, administration of BCG through the intravenous injection routes in non-human primates, insights into trafficking of mycobacterium-specific immune cells, adjuvant formulations for subunit vaccines, discovery of new antigens and epitopes for T and B cells, and development of vaccines composed of attenuated, dormant, or persistent forms of Mtb. All these efforts contribute to new insights that may eventually help identify the long sought after immune correlates of protection against Mtb.

The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together reviews, commentaries, and research articles in the areas of TB immunity that can help drive better vaccine design and vaccination approaches to control or eradicate Mtb. We invite authors to submit work that they view as relevant to these goals, including, but not limited to, the following topics:

1. Intravenous BCG and other nontraditional routes of vaccine administration.
2. Newly recognized TB antigens, including subdominant and cryptic antigens or antigenic decoys.
3. Adjuvant formulations.
4. Eradicating dormant and persistent forms of Mtb.
5. Prime-boost vaccination with attenuated Mtb or BCG strains.
6. Mycobacterium-specific T and B cell responses.

We look forward to receiving your contributions to inspire the TB research community to help eradicate this deadly disease.

Dr. Tony W. Ng
Prof. Dr. Steven A. Porcelli
Guest Editors

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• Mycobacterium tuberculosis
• polyfunctional T cells
• antibodies
• trained immunity
• vaccination routes
• non-human primates
• persisters
• auxotrophs
• adjuvants