Peptides-Based Vaccine MP3RT Induced Protective Immunity Against Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Infection in a Humanized Mouse Model

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) is still a global infectious disease that seriously threatens human beings. The only licensed TB vaccine Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG)’s protective efficacy varies significantly among populations and regions. It is very urgent to develop more effective vaccines. METHODS: In this study, eleven candidate proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were selected to predict peptides with high-affinity binding capacity for the HLA-DRB1*01:01 molecule. The immunodominant peptides were identified with the enzyme-linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT) and linked in silico to result in a novel polypeptide vaccine in Escherichia coli cells. The vaccine’s protective efficacy was evaluated in humanized and wild-type C57BL/6 mice. The potential immune protective mechanisms were explored with Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), flow cytometry, and ELISPOT. RESULTS: Six immunodominant peptides screened from 50 predicted peptides were used to construct a new polypeptide vaccine named MP3RT. After challenge with M. tuberculosis, the colony-forming units (CFUs), lung lesion area, and the number of inflammatory cells in humanized mice rather than wild-type mice vaccinated with MP3RT were significantly lower than these in mice immunized with PBS. The humanized mice vaccinated with MP3RT revealed significant increases in IFN-γ cytokine production, IFN-γ(+) T lymphocytes, CD3(+)IFN-γ(+) T lymphocytes, and the MP3RT-specific IgG antibody. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, MP3RT is a promising peptides-based TB vaccine characterized by inducing high levels of IFN-γ and CD3(+)IFN-γ(+) T lymphocytes in humanized mice. These new findings will lay a foundation for the development of peptides-based vaccines against TB.