New potential vaccines for tuberculosis has yielded highly promising results in older mice with type 2 diabetes, according to findings of a research. The research carried out by a team of researchers from France, Bangladesh, and Australia investigated a potential vaccine for tuberculosis on older mice. The vaccine was found to be highly protective when injected directly into the lungs of diabetic mice.
According to numbers, worldwide, tuberculosis is one of the top 10 causes of death and the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent. Currently, BCG is the only licensed vaccine for TB, and is not effective in adults.
“The findings are welcome for two reasons: one, type 2 diabetes is not only a crucial risk factor for TB; second, type 2 diabetes is a risk factor that becomes more common in aging population ever year,” said the senior author of the study a senior Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine.
Vaccine shoed promising results in Older Mice
The new potential vaccine for tuberculosis BCG::RD1 proved to be highly protective when injected to older, diabetic mice. The vaccine not only acted on T cells but also on other subsets of immune cells, to initiate a robust response against TB causing bacteria.
The vaccine induced remarkable level of protection against TB, with a significant increase in immune response in the lungs of diabetic mice.
In addition, comparing the response of younger mice and older mice, has also helped to gain insight how type 2 diabetes increases the risk of TB.
Clinically, type 2 diabetes negatively impacts how our immune system makes out tuberculosis-causing bacteria in the lung, and vaccination with BCG::RD1 can overcome this fault, opine medical experts.
