New Pathway Offers Hope for Advanced Tuberculosis Vaccine Development
New Delhi: A team of researchers has discovered an "unconventional" immune response that could lead to the development of new tuberculosis (TB) vaccines. Scientists from the Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) in the US focused on Marginal Zone B (MZB) cells, a natural defense against TB infection that has previously been neglected. This breakthrough highlights the potential of MZB cells in enhancing vaccine efficacy, offering new insights into TB immunology and paving the way for innovative vaccine strategies against the disease.
These cells, they said, would be a welcome new target that might be strengthened through new vaccinations to better treat and prevent the illness.
Using high-dimensional flow cytometry, the scientists tracked the progression of infection in an animal model. In the paper, published in the journal Cell Reports, they demonstrated that B cells altered their immunological landscape towards MZB cells.
Detailed observation of this transition revealed that MZB cells responded to infection with increased activity and memory-like phenotypic expression. As a result, cytokine patterns were altered, boosting cell-mediated immunity.
"This discovery opens a new avenue in TB vaccine development, suggesting that targeting B cells for their regulatory functions could be a promising new strategy," said the team led by Martin Gengenbacher from CDI.
Because the only TB vaccine available, the 100-year-old Bacille Calmette-Guerin, or BCG, is now becoming highly unreliable, the team advocated improving BCG by designing it to encourage the formation and communication of B cells, an important component of the immune system.
The researchers' goal with this technique is to create a second-generation TB vaccine that will provide dependable and long-lasting protection against new infections while also helping treat current tuberculosis infections by complementing antibiotic therapy.
