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Gates Package, p.1296 · gates:exh:00593
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Meeting in April 2018 and further data analysis from this cohort as well as patients enrolled at a clinical site in
Kenya is ongoing in collaboration with the TBRU-ASTRa Data Management Center (DMC).
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Completion of enrollment and follow up of the LTBI "Accepted Treatment" Cohort. [ASTRa]
A total of 112 study subjects with latent TB infection (LTBI) who accepted treatment for LTBI (with the weekly
isoniazid plus rifapentine regimen delivered by the DeKalb County Board of Health via directly observed therapy
for 12 weeks [3HP]) were enrolled into TBRU-ASTRa Project 1. Enrollment occurred at the DeKalb County Board
of Health clinics in Metro Atlanta and was completed in March 2017; the final 12-month follow-up visits
completed for all enrolled participants in March 2018. The 60-antigen Response Spectrum Assay (RSA) was
performed on each blood sample collected at baseline, and 3-, 6-, 9- and 12-month follow-ups. PBMCs were
isolated and cryopreserved, and EDTA and Sodium Heparin plasma aliquots stored at Emory Vaccine
Center/Yerkes site. PAXgene blood DNA tubes were also collected from each participant enrolled. In total, 72
participants with LTBI completed LTBI treatment and all 5 study visits including 4 follow-up visits with blood
sample collection for the RSA and PBMC cryopreservation. Data analyses are ongoing.
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Tetramer Production and Development. [ASTRa]
Dr. John Altman (TBRU ASTRa Immunology Core PD) in collaboration with the NIH-funded Emory Tetramer
Facility (PI: Altman) and Drs. Michael Glickman and Jeffrey Aube of the Tri-I TBRU in New York who provided key
ligands for MR1 tetramers has generated mouse, human, and rhesus macaque MR1/5-OP-RU tetramers. These
reagents have been made available to the research community via the NIAID Tetramer Facility. HLA typing was
performed on specimens from 68 subjects from the DeKalb County "Accepted Treatment" cohort and the TBRUASTRa Immunology Core is currently using the allele frequency data, with a focus on class II, to reprioritize
tetramer development plans. We anticipate that a recent discovery by the Altman lab/Tetramer Facility that
soluble HLA-DM greatly accelerates peptide loading to a wide-range of class II MHC alleles from humans
(including HLA-DR and -DQ alleles), at least one class II allele from rhesus macaques (Mamu-DRB-w201), and one
class II allele from mice will help us accelerate tetramer development. We expect that DM will significantly assist
loading for most class II alleles, and that HLA-DM will work in a cross-species manner on alleles from rhesus
macaques.
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Human responses to MR1 and CD1 reactive T cells [LIMAA]
Whereas most vaccine work focuses on MHC-restricted T cells, we are studying the in vivo human responses to
MR1 and CD1 reactive T cells, including tests of T cell expansion during acute and chronic TB infections. We are
seeking diagnostic tests that rely on antigens (tuberculosinyl adenosine, sulfoglycolipid) that are present in M.
tuberculosis but absent in BCG. This approach could minimize false positive diagnostic tests in the setting of BCG
vaccination, especially in the setting of NIH interest in new approaches to systemic BCG vaccination via routes
other than skin, as well as renewed interest in other experimental whole cell vaccines.
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Immune responses of the earliest point of initial TB infection [Tri-I]
To develop a vaccine that may prevent infection, we need to understand the immune responses that occur at the
earliest point of initial TB infection, yet this phase of infection has received much less attention than latent or
active disease. Our studies of genetics, transcriptomics and microbiomics in defined clinical cohorts can shed light
on this phase.