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Purpose: Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine has widely been used to immunize against tuberculosis, but its protective efficacy is variable in adult pulmonary tuberculosis, while it is not efficiently protective against progressive infection of virulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains. In this study, the protective effects of plasmid DNA vaccine constructs encoding IL-12 or IL-18 with the BCG vaccine were evaluated against progressive infection of M. tuberculosis, using mouse aerosol challenge model. Materials and Methods: Plasmid DNA vaccine constructs encoding IL-12 or IL-18 were constructed and mice were immunized with the BCG vaccine or with IL-12 DNA or IL-18 DNA vaccine constructs together with the BCG vaccine. Results: The BCG vaccine induced high level of interferon gamma (IFN-γ) but co-immunization of IL-12 or IL-18 DNA vaccine constructs with the BCG vaccine induced significantly higher level of IFN-γ than a single BCG vaccine. The BCG vaccine was highly protective at early stage of M. tuberculosis infection, but its protective eficacy was reduced at later stage of infection. The co-immunization of IL-12 DNA vaccine constructs with the BCG vaccine was slightly more protective at early stage of infection and was signiicantly more protective at later stage infection than a single BCG vaccine. Conclusion: Co-immunization of IL-12 DNA vaccine with the BCG vaccine induced more protective immunity and was more effective for protection against progressive infection of M. tuberculosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the cloning of the eryC gene encoding Brucella (B.) abortus D-erythrulose 1-phosphate dehydrogenase which is involved in the erythtritol metabolism in the virulent B. abortus strain. The researchers purified recombinant eryC and used it as a diagnostic reagent for bovine brucellosis. The study indicated that B. abortus EryC can be used as a potential reagent in the diagnosis of bovine brucellosis as a single protein antigen.

Background: Sensing and responding to environmental changes is a central aspect of cell division regulation. Mycobacterium tuberculosis contains eleven Ser/Thr kinases, two of which, PknA and PknB, are key signaling molecules that regulate cell division/morphology. One substrate of these kinases is Wag31, and we previously showed that partial depletion of Wag31 caused morphological changes indicative of cell wall defects, and that the phosphorylation state of Wag31 affected cell growth in mycobacteria. In the present study, we further characterized the role of the Wag31 phosphorylation in polar peptidoglycan biosynthesis. Results: We demonstrate that the differential growth among cells expressing different wag31 alleles (wild-type, phosphoablative, or phosphomimetic) is caused by, at least in part, dissimilar nascent peptidoglycan biosynthesis. The phosphorylation state of Wag31 is found to be important for protein-protein interactions between the Wag31 molecules, and thus, for its polar localization. Consistent with these results, cells expressing a phosphomimetic wag31 allele have a higher enzymatic activity in the peptidoglycan biosynthetic pathway. Conclusions: The Wag31Mtb phosphorylation is a novel molecular mechanism by which Wag31Mtb regulates peptidoglycan synthesis and thus, optimal growth in mycobacteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]