NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, January 31, 2013

A new pathway for improving vaccines against tuberculosis has been discovered by microbiologists at the University at Buffalo in collaboration with researchers at other universities, according to a paper in the journal Mucosal Immunology, published by the Nature group. Targeting this pathway dramatically boosts the potency of vaccines that are administered to mucous membranes.

Study co-author Terry D. Connell, PhD, notes that there is a big push for development of mucosal vaccines against a number of pathogens in addition to TB that could be administered by some other route than injection. That’s because in the developing world, where the need for TB vaccination is greatest, it’s very difficult to store vaccines for long periods of time in conditions required for their stability, termed “the cold chain,” which is routinely required to maintain the efficacy and safety of most, if not all, injectable vaccines.