Smegmatis meets tuberculosis

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have created an attenuated strain of Mycobacterium smegmatis containing M. tuberculosis genes. The vector conferred better protection against tuberculosis than the standard bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine in mice.¹ The not-for-profit Aeras has licensed the technology and is now working with the researchers to determine an optimal combination of genes to use in M. smegmatis.

The only prophylactic for TB is the BCG vaccine, which is prepared from a live, attenuated bacterial strain closely related to M. tuberculosis called M. bovis. In BCG, deletion of the region of difference 1 locus is responsible for its attenuation and loss of virulence.²...