Table 1.
DURT Research Priorities for TB Vaccine Development. Donor-unrestricted T-cells (DURTs) are activated by Mtb antigens presented by non-polymorphic antigen presenting systems. These include MR1, CD1, HLA-E for ɑβ T-cells and CD1 or butyrophilins for γδ T-cells. The priorities are listed roughly in the order of importance.
| Antigens | Optimize chemical synthesis of non-peptide antigens to achieve high yields of pure and stable compounds |
| Vaccines | Formulate DURT antigens with adjuvants to achieve subunit vaccines |
| Tetramers | Develop and validate DURT tetramers that can be used to quantify DURT frequencies and characterize their functional and phenotypic profiles. Tetramers will be incorporated into sample sparing assays to be employed in animal and human studies as below |
| Animal Studies | Establish non-human primate (NHP) models to evaluate
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| Human Studies | Use tetramers to evaluate DURTs as
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