Discussion
Our previous studies have demonstrated that the ag85a/b DNA
vaccine had significant efficacy in the treatment of the TB model, which
could induce a Th1-type immune response, and reduce the number of viable
bacteria in organs and the degree of organ lesions (28, 31). The
vaccines containing ag85 complexes constructed by other researchers also
showed good therapeutic effects on MTB infection(39, 40). However, the
current research on vaccines containing ag85 antigens mainly focused on
protective or therapeutic efficacies, and the research on their
mechanism was mainly limited to the adaptive immune response of the
host, and the target and mechanism of protection and immunotherapy with
ag85 vaccine have not been studied through system biology. This study
analyzed the effect of different doses of ag85a/b DNA vaccine IM
or EP immunization on PBMC gene transcriptome by gene expression
profiling, and clarified for the first time that ag85a/b DNA
vaccine had a significant recovery effect on abnormal gene expression
and regulatory pathway changes caused by MTB infection, and further
revealed the target and mechanism of action of ag85a/b DNA
vaccine. The exploration of a therapeutic DNA vaccine for tuberculosis
may provide a new host-directed therapy for the clinic.