Antituberculous immunity induced by methanol extracts of tubercle bacilli; its enhancement by adjuvants

It is possible to prepare from tubercle bacilli a fraction soluble in methanol which is capable of eliciting in mice a marked degree of resistance against virulent tuberculous infection. The immunity was evident whether the infective dose was large and caused a disease with a rapid course, or was very small and caused a disease of many months duration. Active material has been obtained by extraction with methanol at 55 degrees C. of bacterial cells killed with 2 per cent phenol, and washed with acetone. The methanol extracts used in the present study have been prepared from the phenol-killed cells of a culture of BCG, and of the avirulent culture H37Ra. Vaccination of mice bas been carried out by the intraperitoneal route, and the challenge infection (with a highly virulent bovine culture), by the intravenous route. Weight for weight, the protective activity of the methanol extract is smaller than that of the bacterial cells from which it is extracted, but its primary toxicity for mice is also considerably lower. The protective activity can be increased, and the immunity prolonged, by using certain adjuvants as vehicle for injection of the vaccine. An oil adjuvant mixture, and small amounts of a highly purified preparation of the somatic antigen of typhoid bacilli, have been found capable of enhancing and prolonging the antituberculous immunity induced by the methanol extract. Under appropriate conditions the resistance resulting from intraperitoneal injection of the methanol extract is of the same order as that which follows vaccination with whole killed tubercle bacilli or with living BCG.