Effective vaccines against tuberculosis (TB) are needed in order to prevent TB transmission in human and animal populations. Evaluation of TB vaccines may be facilitated by using reliable animal models that mimic host pathophysiology and natural transmission of the disease as closely as possible. In this study, we evaluated the immunogenicity and efficacy of two attenuated vaccines, BCG and MTBVAC, after each was given to 17 goats (2 months old) and then exposed for 9 months to goats infected with M. caprae. In general, MTBVAC-vaccinated goats showed higher interferon-gamma release than BCG vaccinated goats in response to bovine protein purified derivative and ESAT-6/CFP-10 antigens and the response was significantly higher than that observed in the control group until challenge. All animals showed lesions consistent with TB at the end of the study. Goats that received either vaccine showed significantly lower scores for pulmonary lymph nodes and total lesions than unvaccinated controls. Both MTBVAC and BCG vaccines proved to be immunogenic and effective in reducing severity of TB pathology caused by M. caprae. Our model system of natural TB transmission may be useful for evaluating and optimizing vaccines.

中文翻译：

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使用结核病的自然传播模型评估BCG和MTBVAC疫苗的免疫原性和功效。

为了防止结核病在人类和动物种群中的传播，需要有效的抗结核疫苗。可以通过使用可靠的动物模型（尽可能模拟宿主的病理生理和疾病的自然传播）来促进结核病疫苗的评估。在这项研究中，我们评估了两种减毒疫苗BCG和MTBVAC的免疫原性和功效，分别对17只山羊（2个月大）进行了接种，然后对感染了卡普拉分枝杆菌的山羊暴露了9个月。一般而言，接种MTBVAC的山羊对牛蛋白纯化的衍生物和ESAT-6 / CFP-10抗原的反应比接种BCG的山羊显示更高的干扰素-γ释放，并且该反应显着高于对照组直至激发。在研究结束时，所有动物均显示出与结核一致的病变。与未接种疫苗的对照组相比，接受上述两种疫苗接种的山羊的肺部淋巴结和总病变得分明显较低。事实证明，MTBVAC和BCG疫苗均具有免疫原性，可有效降低由卡普拉氏支原体引起的结核病病理严重程度。我们的天然结核病传播模型系统可能对评估和优化疫苗有用。