AUTHOR=Coppola Mariateresa , van den Eeden Susan J. F. , Robbins Naoko , Wilson Louis , Franken Kees L. M. C. , Adams Linda B. , Gillis Tom P. , Ottenhoff Tom H. M. , Geluk Annemieke TITLE=Vaccines for Leprosy and Tuberculosis: Opportunities for Shared Research, Development, and Application JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=9 YEAR=2018 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2018.00308 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2018.00308 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=
Tuberculosis (TB) and leprosy still represent significant public health challenges, especially in low- and lower middle-income countries. Both poverty-related mycobacterial diseases require better tools to improve disease control. For leprosy, there has been an increased emphasis on developing tools for improved detection of infection and early diagnosis of disease. For TB, there has been a similar emphasis on such diagnostic tests, while increased research efforts have also focused on the development of new vaccines. Bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG), the only available TB vaccine, provides insufficient and inconsistent protection to pulmonary TB in adults. The impact of BCG on leprosy, however, is significant, and the introduction of new TB vaccines that might replace BCG could, therefore, have serious impact also on leprosy. Given the similarities in antigenic makeup between the pathogens