ReviewClinical and experimental immunology2012
Is interferon-gamma the right marker for bacille Calmette-Guérin-induced immune protection? The missing link in our understanding of tuberculosis immunology.
Review in Clinical and experimental immunology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
56 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 89 citations in OpenAlex.
- Distribution of HLA-DRB1 alleles in BRICS countries with a high tuberculosis burden: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical · 2021Pooled it
- A CD4+ TNF+ monofunctional memory T-cell response to BCG vaccination is associated with Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in infants exposed to HIV.EBioMedicine · 2022Trial
- Strong, sustained type I IFN signaling acts cell intrinsically to impair IFNγ responses and cause tuberculosis susceptibility.Cell host & microbe · 2026Article
- Tuberculosis treatment and cytotoxic immune signatures: a longitudinal study.Journal of clinical tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases · 2026Article
- Strong sustained type I IFN signaling acts cell intrinsically to impair IFNγ responses and cause tuberculosis susceptibility.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Oncobiotics in urinary bladder cancer. A narrative review of living cancer therapeutics.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Review
- Cross-species blood transcriptional correlates of BCG-mediated protection against tuberculosis include innate and adaptive immune processes.JCI insight · 2025Article
- Effect of Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccination on immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 vaccination.Clinical & translational immunology · 2025Article
- Cellular immune response to a single dose of live attenuated hepatitis a virus vaccine in obese children and adolescents.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Reappraising the Role of T Cell-Derived IFN-γ in Restriction of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the Murine Lung.Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · 2024Article
- Re-appraising the role of T-cell derived interferon gamma in restriction ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Interactions between CNS and immune cells in tuberculous meningitis.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- Clinical characteristics of patients with non-tuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease: a seven-year follow-up study conducted in a certain tertiary hospital in Beijing.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2023Article
- Article
- Mouse Subcutaneous BCG Vaccination and Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection Alter the Lung and Gut Microbiota.Microbiology spectrum · 2022Article
- CD4+CCR6+ T cells dominate the BCG-induced transcriptional signature.EBioMedicine · 2021Article
- Classical CD4 T cells as the cornerstone of antimycobacterial immunity.Immunological reviews · 2021Review
- The safety and efficacy of BCG encapsulated alginate particle (BEAP) against M.tb H37Rv infection in Macaca mulatta : A pilot study.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Comparing the effects of two different strains of mycobacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae NCTC 11659 and M. vaccae ATCC 15483, on stress-resilient behaviors and lipid-immune signaling in rats.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2021Article
- Mycobacterium-Induced Th1, Helminths-Induced Th2 Cells and the Potential Vaccine Candidates for Allergic Asthma: Imitation of Natural Infection.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), developed a century ago, is the only licensed tuberculosis (TB) vaccine in use to date. The protective efficacy of BCG against TB varies with no apparent protection in some population, and mechanisms of its immune protection is poorly known, and yet BCG is the most widely used vaccine, with more than 4 billion BCG-vaccinated children globally. BCG is probably the only licensed vaccine currently in use believed to mediate immune protection through the production of interferon (IFN)-γ by CD4 T cells, which in turn activates macrophages to kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Currently, a number of new TB candidate vaccines are in different phases of clinical trial. The majority of these new vaccines are either recombinant forms of BCG or prime boosters of BCG (rBCG) and their immunogenicity is tested using BCG as a benchmark by measuring specific IFN-γ produced by CD4(+) T cells as a protective immune marker. However, some recent studies that examined mechanisms of immune protection of BCG in animals and humans have reported a lack of correlation between IFN-γ production by CD4 cells and BCG-induced immune protection. These studies point to the fact that there is a missing link in our understanding of TB immunology. Conversely, there is emerging evidence that other T cell subsets (gammadelta, γδ), CD8(+) T cells and natural killer (NK) cells may play a vital role in immune protection against Mtb infection and BCG-induced immune protection. γδ T cells and NK cells, which were considered to be part of the innate immunity in the past, have been shown to develop immunological memory upon re-encounter with the same pathogen. In this paper, the controversy over the role of IFN-γ as a marker for protective immunity against TB, and emerging data on the role of γδ T cells, CD8(+) and NK cells in TB immunology, will be presented.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.