Figure 3. MTBVAC-induced immune response specific to ESAT6 and CFP10 is protective.

(a) Immunoblot analysis of GroEL2, ESAT6 and CFP10 in MTBVAC and MTBVACΔE6C10 lysate samples. Full blot is shown in Supplementary Fig. 7d. (b,c) Antigen-specific IFNγ production following stimulation with PPD (5 μg ml⁻¹), ESAT6 (2 μg ml⁻¹), CFP10 (2 μg ml⁻¹) and Ag85B (2 μg ml⁻¹) during 48 h of splenocytes from mock-, MTBVAC- and MTBVACΔE6C10-vaccinated C57BL/6 (left) and C3H/HeNRj (right) mice. (d–i) Lung (d,e,f) and spleen (g,h,i) bacterial load 4 weeks post low-dose H37Rv intranasal challenge. C57BL/6 (d,g), BALB/c (e,h) and C3H/HeNRj (f,i) were vaccinated with BCG, MTBVAC, MTBVACΔE6C10 or unvaccinated 8 weeks before challenge. (b,c) Data are representative from one of two independent experiments (n=5 mice per group per experiment). (d,e,g,h) Data are derived from n=6. (f,i) Data represent a pool of two independent experiments (n=12 mice per group). All data are mean±s.e.m. (b,c) NS, non-significant; **P<0.01; ***P<0.001 by unpaired t-student test. (d–i) NS, non-significant; *P<0.05; **P<0.01; ***P<0.001 by one-way ANOVA and Bonferroni post-test.