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Updated: Sep 12, 2025

Protective Efficacy and Pulmonary Immune Response Following Subcutaneous and Intranasal BCG Administration in Mice
Published on: September 19, 2016
MetE: a promising protective antigen for tuberculosis vaccine development
Salem Salman Almujri1,2, Elena Stylianou1, Annalisa Nicastri1,3
1The Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Introduction:
Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), remains a significant global health concern. The existing vaccine, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), provides inconsistent protection, highlighting the pressing need for a more effective vaccine. We aimed to identify novel MTB antigens and assess their protective efficacy as TB vaccine candidates.
Methods:
Using immunopeptidomics, we identified 64 and 80 unique mycobacterial antigens derived from BCG and MTB, respectively. We prioritised antigens based on HLA allele coverage through an immunoinformatics approach.
Results:
The candidates, hisD, metE, and mmpL12, delivered as DNA vaccines, were evaluated for efficacy in mice using the ex vivo Mycobacterial Growth Inhibition Assay (MGIA) and metE was identified as a promising candidate. In vivo murine MTB challenge experiments confirmed the protective efficacy conferred by metE when formulated as recombinant protein with AS01™ or AddaS03™ adjuvants, compared to the naïve group. The immunogenic profiles of metE formulated in the two different adjuvants differed, with metE-AS01™ inducing antigen-specific IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-2, IL-17, IgG1 and IgG2a-c, while metE-AddaS03™ induced TNF-α, IL-2, IL-17, IL-4, IgM, IgG1, IgG2b.
Conclusion:
Our findings highlight metE as a promising protective antigen for future TB vaccine development.
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