Vaccines based on one or more combinations of majorly abundant extracellular
products of pathogens and methods for their use and production are presented. The
most prevalent or majorly abundant extracellular products of a target pathogen
are selected irrespective of their absolute molecular immunogenicity and used as
vaccines to stimulate a protective immune response in mammalian hosts against subsequent
infection by the target pathogen. The majorly abundant extracellular products may
be characterized and distinguished by their respective N-terminal amino acid, amino
acid, or DNA sequences. As the vaccines may comprise different combinations of
the extracellular products, subunits thereof, or encoding nucleic acids, a broad
range of effective immunotherapeutic compositions are provided by the present invention.
In addition to other infectious agents, the vaccines so produced can be used to
stimulate an effective immune response against intracellular pathogens and in particular
Mycobacterium tuberculosis.