Core Insights - Tuberculosis (TB) remains the leading cause of death and disability from infectious diseases globally, with 1.2 million deaths annually, particularly affecting low- and middle-income countries [2][5] - The only approved TB vaccine, BCG, shows high efficacy in children but significantly reduced effectiveness in adolescents and adults, highlighting the urgent need for more effective vaccines [2][5] - A new study from Harvard Medical School presents a trivalent mRNA-LNP vaccine that enhances and surpasses the protective effects of BCG in mouse models, indicating a promising direction for next-generation TB vaccines [3][6][8] Vaccine Development - The study utilized a comprehensive dataset of CD4 T cell responses from latent TB patients to systematically screen potential vaccine antigens [5][6] - The identified antigens, PPE20 (Rv1387), EsxG (Rv0287), and PE18 (Rv1788), demonstrated enhanced protective effects in various mouse models compared to BCG [6][8] - 84% of individuals exposed to Mycobacterium tuberculosis showed cellular immune responses to these antigens, suggesting potential effectiveness in humans [6][8] Clinical Trials - The research team plans to initiate Phase 1 clinical trials to assess the safety and efficacy of the mRNA vaccine in humans, aiming to provide a new approach to combat TB [7]