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Infect. Immun., 11 1997, 4880-4882, Vol 65, No. 11
Copyright © 1997, American Society for Microbiology

Differential immunogenicity of novel Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens derived from live and dead bacilli

RR Amara and V Satchidanandam
Centre for Genetic Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Mouse serum raised against killed antigen preparations of Mycobacterium tuberculosis failed to recognize most of the recombinant antigens of M. tuberculosis that were originally identified by reactivity to tuberculosis (TB) patient sera. Similar results were obtained with serum from guinea pigs immunized with live and killed mycobacteria. Antibodies raised against seven random TB patient serum-reactive antigens detected each of these antigens in the sonicate preparation. The nucleotide sequences of the genes for these seven antigens revealed that all represented hitherto unreported genes of M. tuberculosis. Our results suggest differential presentation to the host immune system of the same antigens derived from live and killed mycobacteria.