Development of novel carrier(s) mediated tuberculosis vaccine: more than a tour de force

Despite worldwide availability of the vaccines against most of the infectious diseases, BCG and various programs such as Directly Observed Treatment Short course (DOTS) to prevent tuberculosis still remains one of the most deadly forms of the disease affecting millions of people globally. The evolution of multi drug resistant strains (MDR) has increased the complexity further. Although currently available marketed BCG vaccine has shown sufficient protection against childhood tuberculosis, it has failed to prevent the most common form of disease i.e., pulmonary tuberculosis in adults. However, various vaccine candidates have already entered phase I clinical trials and have shown promising outcomes. The most prominent amongst them is the heterologous prime-boost approach, which shows a great promise towards designing and development of a new efficacious tuberculosis vaccine. It has also been shown that the use of various viral and non-viral vectors as carriers for the potential vaccine candidates will further boost their effect on subsequent immunization. In this review, we briefly summarize the potential of a few novel nano-carriers for developing effective vaccination strategies against tuberculosis.