Improved protection in guinea pigs after vaccination with a recombinant BCG expressing MPT64 on its surface

The lack of an efficient vaccine against tuberculosis is still one of the major problems threatening global human health. In previous work we showed that expression of the protective antigen MPT64 on the surface of Mycobacterium bovis BCG, the only approved vaccine against tuberculosis, strongly improved its immunogenicity and protective potential in mice. In this work we demonstrate that the same recombinant strain is able to induce better protection than wild type BCG also in guinea pigs preventing Mycobacterium tuberculosis dissemination and lung pathology, making this strain a strong candidate for further testing.