Nature 351, 479 - 482 (06 June 1991); doi:10.1038/351479a0

Humoral and cell-mediated immune responses to live recombinant BCG–HIV vaccines

Anna Aldovini & Richard A. Young

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Nine Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA and Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

SEVERAL viral and bacterial live recombinant vaccine vehicles are being developed to produce a new generation of vaccines against a broad spectrum of infectious diseases¹. The human tuberculosis vaccine Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette–Guerin (BCG)² has features that make it a particularly attractive live recombinant vaccine vehicle. BCG and other mycobacteria are highly effective adjuvants, and the immune response to mycobacteria has been studied extensively. With nearly two billion immunizations, BCG has a long record of safe use in man^3,4. It is one of the few vaccines that can be given at birth, it engenders long-lived immune responses with only a single dose, and there is a worldwide distribution network with experience in BCG vaccination. Recently developed molecular genetic tools and methods for mycobacteria have provided the means to introduce foreign genes into BCG^5–8. Here we report that a variety of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 polypeptides can be expressed in BCG recombinants under the control of the mycobacterial hspTO promoter and that the foreign polypeptides produced in BCG can induce antibody and T-cell responses. These results demonstrate that BCG can be used as a live recombinant vaccine vehicle to induce immune responses to pathogen proteins produced by the bacillus.