Johns Hopkins develops a nasal DNA vaccine to fight tuberculosis
Johns Hopkins researchers report a therapeutic nasal DNA vaccine against tuberculosis, built to work alongside existing drugs by targeting the drug-tolerant bacteria that survive antibiotics and drive relapse. In mice it cleared infection faster and prevented relapse, and in monkeys the immune response lasted at least six months. Human trials are still ahead.
Tuberculosis remains the deadliest infectious disease worldwide, with more than 10 million active cases and 1.2 million deaths reported in 2024, according to the WHO. A Johns Hopkins Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health team, publishing in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, developed a therapeutic intranasal DNA vaccine that fuses two genes to guide the immune system toward drug-tolerant persister bacteria that survive prolonged antibiotic therapy and cause relapse. Delivered through the nose, it concentrates the immune defense in the lungs. In mice given first-line drugs, the vaccine cleared bacteria faster, reduced lung inflammation and prevented relapse, and it boosted a regimen used against drug-resistant TB. In rhesus macaques the immune response persisted at least six months. Researchers say more preclinical work is needed before human trials.