Effective preexposure tuberculosis vaccines fail to protect when they are given in an immunotherapeutic mode.
Two vaccine formulations previously shown to induce protective immunity in mice and prevention of long-term necrosis in guinea pigs were tested as potential immunotherapeutic vaccines in mice earlier infected by aerosol with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Neither vaccine had any effect on the course of the infection in the lungs, but both reduced the bacterial load in the spleen. Similarly, inoculation with Mycobacterium bovis BCG had no effect whatsoever and, if given more than once, appeared to induce an increasingly severe pyogranulomatous response in the lungs of these mice.
Turner
J
J
Mycobacteria Research Laboratories, Department of Microbiology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA.
Rhoades
E R
ER
Keen
M
M
Belisle
J T
JT
Frank
A A
AA
Orme
I M
IM
D000818:Animals; D001500:BCG Vaccine / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D008168:Lung / Q000473:pathology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014611:Vaccination
D001500:BCG Vaccine