REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Vaccines and Molecular Therapeutics
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1608104
This article is part of the Research TopicCommunity Series in Research Advances of Tuberculosis Vaccine and its Implication on COVID-19: Volume IIIView all 6 articles
BCG and Beyond: Unlocking New frontiers in TB vaccine Development
Provisionally accepted
- International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (India), New Delhi, Delhi, India
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With over 10 million new cases and 1.6 million deaths annually, tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a significant worldwide health-burden. To assist in curbing the spread of TB, the century-old BCG, which is a live-attenuated vaccine, is now the only licensed TB vaccine used in humans. However, BCG's limited efficacy and poor antigenicity in adults have evoked the need to design new vaccines against TB. The limited parameter is the availability of potent antigens; as a consequence, it is imperative to study the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb)-specific antigens that can provide a stronger immune response if included in vaccine candidates.Through this review, we aim to concentrate on the progress of current vaccine-candidates undergoing preclinical and clinical-studies. Moreover, it is not the pathogen but the genetics of the host that plays an essential role in fine-tuning the immune-response and susceptibility to TB. Over the past 50 years, a systematic approach to treating TB patients has overlooked factors like pharmacokinetics, immune-response, and treatment duration. Henceforth, this review highlights the precision medicine-guided approach considering genetic-makeup and host immunity that could influence clinical management choices. The consolidated review will shed light on advancements in vaccine-candidates, which can be harnessed in prophylactic development against TB.
Keywords: Tuberculosis, BCG, trained immunity, Vaccine, host genetics
Received: 08 Apr 2025; Accepted: 07 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shaji, Verma, Bhaskar and Dwivedi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ved Prakash Dwivedi, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (India), New Delhi, 110 067, Delhi, India
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