Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Health, Health Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan 16150, Malaysia
  • 2 Medical Sciences, Health Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan 16150, Malaysia
Tuberculosis (Edinb), 2004;84(1-2):102-9.
PMID: 14670351 DOI: 10.1016/j.tube.2003.08.011

Abstract

The last few years have witnessed intense research on vaccine development against tuberculosis. This has been driven by the upsurge of tuberculosis cases globally, especially those caused by multi-drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains. Various vaccine strategies are currently being developed which can be broadly divided into the so-called living and non-living vaccines. Examples are attenuated members of the M. tuberculosis complex, recombinant mycobacteria, subunit proteins and DNA vaccines. Given current developments, we anticipate that recombinant BCG and DNA vaccines are the most promising. Multiple epitopes of M. tuberculosis may need to be cloned in a vaccine construct for the desired efficacy to be achieved. The technique of assembly polymerase chain reaction could facilitate such a cloning procedure.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.