How close are we to understanding immune evasion and development of vaccines for mycobacterial pathogens?

Phylogenetic studies have provided information on the origin and adaptation of pathogenic mycobacteria for survival in the vertebrate host, ability to evade immune clearance. Lack of understanding of how mycobacterial pathogens evade immune clearance has impeded progress in developing efficacious vaccines. The immune response that develops on exposure leads to development of and immune response that controls but does not clear infection leading to a persistent infection. Results obtained from ongoing studies with animal models have provided data suggesting persistence is attributable to induction of T cell dysfunction, exhaustion.



The goal of this special issue is to bring scientists conducting research on mycobacterial pathogens together to review where we are in characterizing the phylogenetic relation of mycobacterial pathogens, understanding how they evade immune clearance, foster development of collaborations to detail how mycobacterial pathogens evade immune clearance and develop vaccines.



We welcome the submission of Original Research, Reviews, Mini Review, and Perspective articles on themes including, but not limited to:

• Phylogenetic relation of pathogenic mycobacteria.

• Mini reviews of research on the immune response to specific mycobacterial pathogens

• Review T cell dysfunction, exhaustion in mycobacteria

• Reviews on the immune response to mycobacteria using different animal models

• Original research on the immune response to mycobacterial pathogens in humans and other species