New Model of Tuberculosis Will Speed Search for New Vaccines, Therapies

A team from Seattle Children’s Research Institute has developed an improved mouse model for tuberculosis that replicates characteristics of the human disease not possible in other available models. The ultra-low dose model, named that because mice are infected with 1-3 bacteria causing tuberculosis compared to standard models that use 100 bacteria, will offer a novel platform to accelerate the design and testing of new vaccines and therapies for tuberculosis, as well as a system for studying the immune system’s response to tuberculosis. New strategies are needed to prevent and treat tuberculosis, the world’s deadliest infectious disease accounting for about 1.6 million deaths each year.

The findings will be published online in the journal Cell Host and Microbe.