Antigen 85B of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: From Immunodominant Antigen to Vaccine Candidate

Authors

• Vivek Chauhan, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of MedicineFollow
• Gaytri Mahajan, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine
• Rakesh Kumar, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of MedicineFollow
• Shrikanth S. Gadad, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of MedicineFollow
• Subhash Chauhan, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of MedicineFollow
• Chinnaswamy Jagannath, Houston Methodist Research InstituteFollow
• Subramanian Dhandayuthapani, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of MedicineFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-14-2026

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), continues to pose a significant global health challenge despite the existence of effective treatments. The only licensed TB vaccine, Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG), offers inconsistent and generally limited protection against adult pulmonary TB. As a result, the pursuit of more effective TB vaccines has intensified over the past two decades, prompting the evaluation of several immunodominant Mtb antigens as vaccines. Among these, antigen 85B (Ag85B) has emerged as a promising candidate due to its critical roles in mycobacterial cell wall biosynthesis, host cell adhesion, and the induction of immune responses. Ag85B has been incorporated into diverse vaccine platforms, including subunit, recombinant, DNA, and mRNA-based vaccines. Evidence from preclinical and clinical studies indicates that Ag85B-containing vaccine formulations elicit robust cellular immune responses, and in many instances, enhance protection against TB. Collectively, these findings position Ag85B as a central component in the development of next-generation TB vaccines. This review examines the biological properties and immunological significance of Ag85B and provides an overview of recent advances in Ag85B-based vaccine strategies.

Comments

© 2026 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.

Recommended Citation

Chauhan, Vivek, Gaytri Mahajan, Rakesh Kumar, Shrikanth S. Gadad, Subhash C. Chauhan, Chinnaswamy Jagannath, and Subramanian Dhandayuthapani. "Antigen 85B of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: From Immunodominant Antigen to Vaccine Candidate." Vaccines 14, no. 9 (2026): 811.  https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines14090811

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Publication Title

Vaccines

DOI

10.3390/vaccines14090811

Academic Level

faculty

Mentor/PI Department

Immunology and Microbiology