Aliabbas A. Husain, Hatim F. Daginawala, Hemant J. Purohit, Girdhar M. Taori and Rajpal S. Kashyap
In the present study, fractions of culture filtrate proteins isolated at different time periods from M.tuberculosis (MTB) culture were evaluated for T cell activity (ADA, IFN-γ, TNF-α, & IL-12) using in vitro peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) model. Our results suggest that PBMC’s induced with culture filtrate proteins particularly those secreted towards late logarithmic growth phase of MTB culture have good potential T cell activity as compared to Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG) vaccine. On evaluation of antigen levels in cell supernants of fractions we found levels of all secretary antigens increased towards later phase fraction (fraction C).Moreover on comparing T cell activity of individual purified MTB antigens with fraction C, we found that Fraction C induced better immune response than individual antigen. In conclusion, culture filtrate proteins of MTB culture are important T-cell inducers, and may be further explored in near future for development of effective vaccination strategies for improving efficacy of currently available BCG vaccine.
