Mycobacterium bovis BCG is the only accepted vaccine for the prevention of tuberculosis (TB) in humans. BCG is a live vaccine, and induction of immunity to TB requires productive infection of the host by BCG. However, BCG is not a satisfactory vaccine, because it fails to protect against pulmonary TB in adults. In this study, we found that BCG strains cannot utilize many naturally occurring ami...

Although intravesical instillation of bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is a clinically well-recognized therapy for bladder carcinoma in situ and recurrence prophylaxis, these mechanisms have not been fully understood. We studied the effects of BCG infection (Connaught strain) on target cancer cells and host immune systems in murine bladder cancer. The bladder cancer cell line, MB49, was used in C...

Buruli ulcer (BU) vaccine design faces similar challenges to those observed during development of prophylactic tuberculosis treatments. Multiple BU vaccine candidates, based upon Mycobacterium bovis BCG, altered Mycobacterium ulcerans (MU) cells, recombinant MU DNA, or MU protein prime-boosts, have shown promise by conferring transient protection to mice against the pathology of MU challenge. R...

Fifty-four patients with evidence of locally advanced primary squamous cell bronchial carcinoma (SCC), and three patients with adenocarcinoma (AC) had lung resection to remove all the visible tumour. After operation an randomly chosen group of 20 SCC patients received adjuvant BCG immunostimulation by scarifications (BCG-A). An additional group of 14 SCC patients, and three AC patients received...

OBJECTIVE The primary aim was to search for lower doses of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) that are effective and have lower toxicity. METHODS A low dose of BCG 27 mg was compared with BCG 13.5mg, using mitomycin C (MMC) 30 mg as the third arm of comparison. A total of 430 patients with intermediate-risk superficial bladder cancer were randomised into three groups. Instillations were repeated ...

BACKGROUND Surfactant protein A (SP-A) is a C-type lectin involved in surfactant homeostasis as well as host defense in the lung. We have recently demonstrated that SP-A enhances the killing of bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) by rat macrophages through a nitric oxide-dependent pathway. In the current study we have investigated the role of tyrosine kinases and the downstream mitogen-activated pro...

Tuberculosis remains as an important socioeconomical and medical problem throughout the world and especially in Iran. Early and timely diagnosis of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis is vital to initiate prompt treatment. Current diagnostic methods are either slow or lack enough sensitivity or specificity. Several mycobacterial antigens are involved in the complex interaction with t...

BACKGROUND Vaccines may have non-specific effects. An observational study from Guinea-Bissau suggested that oral polio vaccine at birth (OPV0) provided with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine was associated with down-regulation of the immune response to BCG vaccine 6 weeks later. Based on the previous finding, we wanted to test our a priori hypothesis that OPV would dampen the immune respon...

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the most important infectious diseases of man and animals, and the only available vaccine (BCG) requires urgent replacement or improvement. To facilitate this, the protective mechanisms induced by BCG require further understanding. As a live attenuated vaccine, persistence of BCG bacilli in the host may be a crucial mechanism. We have investigated the long term ...

The lack of validated immunological correlates of protection makes tuberculosis vaccine development difficult and expensive. Using intradermal bacille Calmette-Guréin (BCG) as a surrogate for aerosol Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) in a controlled human infection model could facilitate vaccine development, but such a model requires preclinical validation. Non-human primates (NHPs) may provide...