A nonhuman primate model for preclinical testing of new tuberculosis vaccines

Nonhuman primates appear to have significant advantages over conventional l aboratory animals in terms of modeling pulmonary tuberculosis for purposes of vaccine evaluation. Primates are quite susceptible to infection by the a erosol route, develop a humanlike disease, exhibit antigen-induced T lympho cyte reactivity both in vitro and in vivo, and can be protected quite effec tively by bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccination. There are fewer than a dozen published studies of experimental tuberculosis in primates, and all of the available data on the response of primates to vaccination have been genera ted in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). There have been no modern immunolog ic studies of primate tuberculosis. Thus, responses to tuberculosis vaccine s in primates are only minimally characterized, and much additional baselin e work remains to be done before the responses to new vaccines can be place d in the proper biological context.