A Controlled Human Infection Model (CHIM) With Intradermal BCG in Malawi

Despite tremendous efforts, an effective tuberculosis (TB) vaccine remains elusive. TB continues to infect and kill many. In 2021, TB infected more than 10 million and killed 1.6 million people. To date, the M.bovis bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG) is the only licensed vaccine against tuberculosis (TB). Efforts to come up with new and effective vaccines have not been successful. Partially, the lack of suitable disease models and protection correlates hinders the research of new vaccines. Controlled human infection model studies (CHIM) involve administering disease-causing microbes to healthy individuals, with continued monitoring of disease response. These studies have been used to study malaria, typhoid, pneumococcal pneumonia and the recent SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. The BCG-Controlled Human Infection Model (BCG-CHIM) will allow accurate dosing with safe mycobacteria as well as minimal tissue sampling to understand immunity to mycobacteria. Considering that the M. bovis BCG is a safe living Mycobacteria, it can be used as a CHIM against which to test new vaccines.