A team of Korean scientists has developed a tuberculosis DNA vaccine that substantially reduces treatment period for the disease and prevents it from reoccuring.
The team, led by Prof. Sung Young-chul of Pohang University of Science and Technology, said on Friday (Feb. 11) the effectiveness of the DNA vaccine had been demonstrated through experiments with mice.
“Conventional tuberculosis chemotherapy requires up to eight months in treatment, but the DNA vaccine cuts the period to three months. It also prevents recurrence of the fatal disease,” Sung said.
DNA vaccine refers to a vaccine containing DNA coding unlike traditional vaccines, which typically use a weakened or killed version of the disease-causing organism.
Conventional vaccines have prevented many killer diseases like small pox and polio but scientists have suffered setbacks in coming out with vaccines for some pathogens, including tuberculosis.
Sungs team created a tuberculosis vaccine containing DNA from the bacterium that causes the disease and tested its effectiveness with two groups of mice.
They gave mice tuberculosis chemotherapy with and without the DNA vaccine, which stimulates the immune system.
Roughly 60 percent of mice given just drugs suffered a reoccurrence of tuberculosis when the treatment was stopped.
But among the mice treated with the cocktail of drugs and the experimental DNA vaccines, not even one animal suffered from tuberculosis over eight months after the treatment ended.
“In the future, this DNA vaccine may be used for preventive inoculation against tuberculosis, thus helping human beings grapple with this still-dangerous disease,” Sung said.
Although many think tuberculosis is not a major problem thanks to antibiotics such as penicillin, the disease still kills approximately 2 million people across the world every year.
In Korea, some 20 million of the nations total population of 48 million carry tuberculosis bacteria and about 20,000 come down with the disease every year.
Especially vexing for doctors and patients is the recent emergence of drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria as currently there are no methods for fighting against this strain. [from www.korea.net]
