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Científicos españoles logran la vacuna experimental más eficaz contra la tuberculosis.
Un equipo de científicos de la Facultad de Medicina de Zaragoza ha desarrollado junto con el Instituto Pasteur de París la vacuna más eficaz de las experimentadas en los último años. Probada hasta ahora en animales, los investigadores consideran que en tres años estará lista para usar en humanos. Los científicos prevén que bastará una dosis y que soólo costará un euro. La enfermedad, que está en auge en España, mata al año a dos millones de personas. La actual vacuna apenas es eficaz. Para el desarrollo de la nueva vacuna los inverstigatores han modificado geneticamente la bacteria hasta el punto de que no daña el organismo, pero es capaz de activar la respuesta immunológica de paciente. El Pais, Sábado 8 de Abril de2006.

- Press release: Joint Forces against Tuberculosis. In these days bird flu predominate newspaper headlines. Yet HIV, malaria and TB continue to ravage as major killers amongst plagues with dramatic economic consequences, notably in low-income countries. European scientists have joined forces and formed two major scientific networks supported by the EU frame work program 6 with 30 million Euro. TBVAC and MUVAPRED attempt to rationally develop vaccines against these poverty related diseases with emphasis on tuberculosis. A hundred years after the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the etiologic agent of tuberculosis to Robert Koch, who worked in Berlin, members of the two EU networks meet in Berlin to plan their future strategies. TBVAC aims at the rational development of novel vaccines to prevent pulmonary tuberculosis in young adults. Of particular interest is a vaccine for HIV-infected individuals who are particularly susceptible to tuberculosis. Several promising vaccine candidates are currently optimized in preclinical models. A phase I trail with one of the vaccine candidates, developed in TBVAC, has just been initiated. MUVAPRED aims at a vaccine that directly acts at the local site of TB manifestation the mucosa. Vaccines will be developed which are easily administered in low-income countries where TB rampages most. Both networks complement each other in an ideal way and hence develop their strategies jointly to gain highest possible synergies. Representatives of MUVAPRED and TBVAC will discuss this on Monday, 28. November at 12h in the Robert Koch auditorium of the Institute for Microbiology Charité For further questions please contact: Dr. Sabine Englich Max-Planck-Institut für Infektionsbiologie Campus Charité Mitte Schumannstr. 21/22 10117 Berlin Tel.: +49 30 28460142; e-mail: englich@mpiib-berlin.mpg.de Venue: Robert-Koch Hörsaal Institut für Mikrobiologie der Charité Dorotheenstr. 96 10117 Berlin

- New TB vaccine enters clinical trials. A new tuberculosis (TB) vaccine has been designed at Statens Serum Institut (SSI), Copenhagen. While the current TB vaccine, the Calmette (BCG) vaccine efficiently protects children against TB, protection gradually decreases after 10-15 years and the vaccine provides limited protection against the disease in adults in the third world. In collaboration with Intercell AG and supported by the European Union, SSI now initiates clinical trials of a TB subunit vaccine that aims to either replace the Calmette vaccine or boost its activity in adults. Copenhagen (Denmark) - Vienna (Austria), 18 November 2005.

- With 2 millions deaths per year, tuberculosis continues to be a major killer that particularly affects the young adult population of low-income countries with dramatic economic consequences. The current vaccine against tuberculosis, BCG, is relatively ineffective in this population, and new vaccines are urgently needed as these may be the only affordable means to control this disease. Leading European scientist and institutions have in recent years joined forces in projects funded by the EU framework 6 programme to develop new vaccines effective in young adults, including HIV-infected individuals who are particularly susceptible to tuberculosis. In one so-called integrated project, designated TB-VAC, 28 European and 3 African partners currently synergise scientific, clinical and industrial excellence to rationale develop new vaccines. A range of new vaccines candidates have been discovered through these efforts, and some of these are now entering phase I safety trials in humans. European initiatives like TB-VAC where leading scientists are brought together rapidly lead to more in depth insights into infectious diseases like tuberculosis. The involvement of industry assures that scientific discoveries will be developed more rapidly into new tools and products more efficient to fight the disease. A continued and increased support of projects such as TB-VAC during the 7th Frame Work Programme is essential to keep the momentum of these networks going, and to realise the hope that new vaccines currently in initial clinical phases, in fact in ten years will provide protection against tuberculosis in millions of young adults. March10th, 2006

- RESEARCH INTO NEW VACCINES AGAINST TUBERCULOSIS Preclinical studies using a novel live vaccine based on Mycobacterium tuberculosis shows that it confers superior protective immunity against tuberculosis compared with the current BCG vaccine. Tuberculosis remains one of the leading causes of infectious disease mortality throughout the world. The current vaccine, the BCG, is the only vaccine available to prevent tuberculosis. It was developed in the early 20th century by French scientists, Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin, working at the Pasteur Institute in Lille. Millions of doses are delivered annually, particularly in under-developed parts of the world. However, the BCG vaccine is not considered to be highly effective and. given the variable levels of protective immunity generated, there is a concerted effort worldwide to develop new vaccines that provide better protection against pulmonary tuberculosis. After more than 5 years of collaborative research, Six European and Latin-American research teams have completed a study into a new vaccine candidate against tuberculosis. The work was co-ordinated by the University of Zaragoza and Pasteur Institute, Paris. The new vaccine was developed by inactivating an important virulence regulatory gene from the genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of the disease. The new research results, to be published in the journal, Vaccine, demonstrate that the vaccine candidate, when delivered as a single dose, is a superior vaccine to BCG. Vaccinated guinea pigs were protected against tuberculosis challenge more effectively than BCG. This protection was associated with reduced severity of disease and bacterial burden. Unlike other vaccine candidates tested, it potentially provides high levels of protection when delivered as a single dose. The research may provide a rational starting point for the development of a new generation of live vaccines against tuberculosis that are inexpensive and easy to produce. Vaccines based on the M. tuberculosis I?

- NOTA PRENSA VACUNA TB 21de Marzo de 2006 INVESTIGACION EN NUEVAS VACUNAS VIVAS CONTRA LA TUBERCULOSIS DESACTIVANDO AL BACILO DE LA TUBERCULOSIS: La inactivación de un único gen del bacilo de la tuberculosis conduce a un candidato a vacuna con una atenuación mayor que mejor protección que la actual vacuna BCG La actual vacuna contra la tuberculosis BCG fue desarrollada por los investigadores franceses Albert Calmette y Camille Guerín a principios del siglo XX y consiste es una vacuna viva atenuada, que confiere protección para los casos graves de tuberculosis. Actualmente su uso es recomendado por la Organización Mundial de la Salud en países con alta incidencia de tuberculosis y millones de dosis son administradas anualmente, aunque el grado de protección que confiere en casos de tuberculosis respiratoria, es muy variable. Desarrollar vacunas más eficaces que la actual BCG contra las formas respiratorias para poder erradicar la tuberculosis es una prioridad de la comunidad científica. Dos son los Principales objetivos en la investigación de nuevas vacunas contra la tuberculosis. Por un lado, mejorar la inmunidad conferida por la actual BCG y por otro, la construcción de nuevas vacunas más eficaces y capaces de reemplazar la actual vacuna BCG y las vacunas vivas son buenos candidatos potenciales. Los estudios del gen denominado phoP han demostrado que esta implicado en la regulación de factores de virulencia del bacilo por lo que única mutación inactiva importantes circuitos de virulencia del bacilo. La estrategia elegida por el Grupo de Trabajo de la Universidad de Zaragoza, en colaboración con el Instituto Pasteur, ha sido -a partir del conocimiento del bacilo y del desarrollo de las herramientas genéticas para su manipulación- partir de una cepa de tuberculosis y construir una nueva vacuna viva inactivando determinados genes de forma racional. Nos planteamos construir una nueva vacuna viva, a partir de un bacilo aislado de un paciente y inactivando un gen regulador global de virulencia. Esta estraF?

- Expertise collective " Tuberculose : place de la vaccination dans la maîtrise de la maladie " by Roland BROSCH (unité de génétique moléculaire bactérienne, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France), Didier CHE and Bénédicte DECLUDT (département des maladies infectieuses, Institut de veille sanitaire, Saint-Maurice, France), Pierre DURIEUX (unité de santé publique, hôpital Georges Pompidou, Paris, France), Joël GAUDELUS (service de pédiatrie, hôpital Jean Verdier, Bondy, France), Brigitte GICQUEL (unité de génétique mycobactérienne, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France), Nicole GUERIN (Comité technique des vaccinations), Thomas HANSLIK (Service de médecine interne et de néphrologie, hôpital Ambroise Paré, Boulogne-Billancourt, France), Andrea INFUSO (département des maladies infectieuses, Institut de veille sanitaire, Saint-Maurice, France), Vincent JARLIER (service de bactériologie et hygiène, hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France), Philippe-Henri LAGRANGE (laboratoire de microbiologie, hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris, France), Daniel LEVY-BRUHL (département des maladies infectieuses, Institut de veille sanitaire, Saint-Maurice, France), Gilles MARCHAL (Centre national de référence pour les mycobactéries, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France), Arnaud TREBUCQ (division tuberculose, Union internationale contre la tuberculose et les maladies respiratoires, Paris, France), Patrick ZYLBERMANN (Centre de recherche médecine, science, santé et société, Villejuif, France), authors and experts, published by Les Editions Inserm (Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale) - 101 rue de Tolbiac, 75013 PARIS, FRANCE