Antigen discovery and tuberculosis vaccine development in the post-genomicera

For a number of years, a major effort has been put into the identification of candidate molecules for inclusion in a novel vaccine against tuberculosi s. Various techniques have been exploited and have resulted in the identifi cation of immunologically important antigens such as the immunodominant ant igens ESAT-6 and antigen 85A/B. Today, the availability of the total nucleo tide sequence of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome enables a post-genom ic antigen discovery approach based on denotation and screening of complete protein families containing immunodominant molecules. One group of genes s haring properties with ESAT-6 constitute what has been called the esat-6 ge ne family. The genes have 10-35% homology to esat-6, are approximately the same size and share genomic organization. The data accumulated so far demon strate that these molecules are immunodominant antigens strongly recognized in human TB patients and with the potential for a novel TB vaccine.