Tuberculosis: from genome to vaccine

The availability of mycobacterial genome sequences has paved the way to identifying potential tuberculosis vaccine candidates in order to replace the currently used bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccines that show variable protective efficacy in adults. Genomics provides the basis for bioinformatic, transcriptomic and proteomic analysis, increases screening efficiency and enables valuable information concerning the biology and virulence of the mycobacterial species to be extracted by comparative genomics. Although in silico results must be confirmed in vitro and in vivo, bioinformatic analysis of the genomes is highlighting candidates for testing. For designing subunit vaccines, attenuated or improved recombinant whole-cell live vaccines, information from the genomes of the human host and pathogenic mycobacterial species is of great help.