Immunopatology

In addition to the development of new TB vaccines, there is interest in the field in studying new routes of inoculation to make existing vaccines more effective. In this regard, the pulmonary route of inoculation has been shown in different animal models to be more effective than the intradermal route, which is currently used with BCG. By mimicking the route of tuberculosis infection with vaccination, different local immune mechanisms are stimulated in the lungs that efficiently curb infection. Our group has studied the use of live attenuated vaccines, such as BCG or MTBVAC, administered intranasally in mouse models, observing that this route of administration stimulates a local immune response in the lungs that is not obtained when mice are vaccinated intradermally, highlighting the role of IL 17 and secretory immunoglobulins (Aguilo et al. 2014; Aguilo et al 2016). These results were recently demonstrated in a non-human primate model of tuberculosis.