A PE_PGRS33 protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: an ideal target for future tuberculosis vaccine design.

It is known that cellular immune response is relevant to fight against tuberculosis (TB); hence, identification of mycobacterial antigens that induce a protective immune cellular response is of great interest, especially for the development of effective TB vaccines. Genomic data have an impact on the identification of potential antigens as new vaccine targets. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge about the advances in new TB vaccine designs as well as the features reported for the pro-glu_polymorphic GC-rich sequence (PE_PGRS33) protein, considering this molecule as a prototype of the PE_PGRS family to better understand the biological function of this protein family that could be considered an ideal target for future vaccine design.