Latest TB scientific highlights

Latest TB scientific highlights:

• National Institutes of Health: Temperature-stable TB vaccine safe, prompts immune response in NIH-supported study

A clinical trial testing a freeze-dried, temperature-stable experimental TB vaccine in healthy adults found that it was safe and stimulated both antibodies and responses from the cellular arm of the immune system. A non-temperature stable form of the candidate previously had been tested in several clinical trials. However, this was the first clinical trial of any subunit TB vaccine candidate in a temperature-stable (thermostable) form. Results are published in Nature Communications.

• NPR: Frozen cells reveal a clue for a vaccine to block the deadly TB bug

Scientists have taken a major step toward creating an mRNA vaccine against TB that could work for people of all ages. The key to their breakthrough: an unusual set of blood samples that were kept in deep freeze for nearly two decades – until the vital information they contained could finally be unlocked thanks to some new technology.

• Cornell-developed anti-TB compound headed to trials

A novel compound that has the potential to starve the bacteria that causes TB is entering human clinical trials. The clinical trials will be funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which in February announced a strategic licensing agreement with the biomedical research company Calibr to further develop the compound CLB073, which has shown promise against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

• Wayne State researchers develop new technology to easily detect active TB

There is an unmet need for a point-of-care, nonsputum-based TB test. Researchers have discovered new technology that will quickly and easily detect active Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection antibodies.

• London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine: Feasible and effective new community-based diagnostic technique for TB

A new, low-cost, scalable package for diagnosing TB onsite in resource-poor community settings is feasible and effective, according to a new trial. Portable, battery-operated, molecular diagnostic tool, Xpert, was able to detect almost all likely infectious cases of the disease in a community trial of almost 600 participants in South Africa. Published in Nature Medicine, the findings may signal an important step towards the implementation of active case finding for the disease, helping move diagnostics out of healthcare facilities and into the community.

For more TB news, check out the latest edition of the TB Online Weekly Newsletter (#9, 15 March 2023).