Spring/Summer 2012 Aesculapian Magazine - University of Georgia ...

The most widely used diagnostic test is the tuberculin
skin test. It was developed nearly a century ago and
requires an under-the-skin injection of purified M.
tuberculosis proteins. As mentioned before, it can give false
results in individuals vaccinated with BCG, but also in
individuals exposed to other related bacteria or infected
with HIV, and it cannot accurately identify latent infection.
One of the major challenges in the global effort to
control TB is deciding which of these areas to focus on:
diagnostics, therapeutics or vaccines. Researchers at
UGA are working on a little bit of everything, from novel
therapeutics to more sensitive diagnostics.
UGA researchers making progress
In 2010, Quinn was one of only six researchers in the
United States to receive part of a $2.9 million grant from
the FDA to develop a diagnostic test for latent tuberculosis
infection. “A vast majority of the infections worldwide are
latent, but there’s no way to diagnose them,” says Quinn.
Two years later, Quinn is making progress on
diagnostic blood and urine tests based on bacterial
responses; he has applied for a one-year extension to begin
looking at the test’s effectiveness on clinical serum and
urine samples.
Don Mark Estes, a professor in infectious diseases
and an immunology expert, came to UGA in 2010. He
says that the research opportunities available through the
University’s Animal Health Research Center were a major
draw for him as a TB researcher.
The Animal Health Research Center (AHRC), a
biocontainment facility
opened on the UGA campus
in 2006, is key for UGA’s
capacity to study tuberculosis.
The AHRC is designated
ABSL-3 by the Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention, and BSL3-Ag
by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, which means
it can hold high-security
pathogens and house large
animals for research. It is
currently one of only two
university-operated facilities
in the nation with labs that
meet these standards.
“There is a lot of
potential for collaborative
Photo by Sue Myers Smith
The Animal Health Research
Center (AHRC)
Dr. Don Mark Estes, professor in the department of Infectious
Diseases, in his lab.
work at UGA,” says Estes. His lab focuses on the genetics
and immunology of M. tuberculosis, and he will be
conducting the first high-containment animal study in the
AHRC starting in the fall of 2012.
The AHRC’s ability to hold large animals means that
instead of studying only smaller animal models, like mice
and guinea pigs, for vaccine development, they can now
use everything from nonhuman primates to cattle.
“That’s one of the advantages of the AHRC,” says
Estes. “It has the capability for large animal studies that
other universities don’t have.”
Animal modeling plays a pivotal role in testing
vaccines; for any vaccines to go into human clinical trials,
they must first be tested in animals.
“The problem with TB vaccine development is that
we really don’t understand enough about the immune
response to be able to create the ultimate vaccine,” says
Photo by Laura Smith