TB: avoiding and subverting immunity
An ancient disease, tuberculosis (TB) continues to be one of the major causes of disability and death worldwide. The recent TB cases in Quebec among the Inuit community has underscored the need to find new avenues to eradicate this illness.
TB is highly contagious, is spread by bacteria called mycobacterium tuberculosis, (Mtb) which attacks the lungs. But because Mtb is able to persist in individuals with apparently normal immune systems, scientists suspect that Mtb has developed strategies to avoid, evade and even subvert innate and adaptive immunity.
Researchers at 平特五不中, led by professor Maziar Divangahi, Faculty of Medicine, (Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology) focussed their efforts on the route of entry of Mtb, which is mainly via the respiratory tract. Here, the bacteria encounter the first line of defense - alveolar macrophages or dust cells - which reside in the lungs and play a vital role in host defense and immunity.
Divangahi, who is also a member of the Research Institute of the 平特五不中 Health Centre (RI-MUHC), discovered that the bacteria that causes TB not only survives but replicates in the naturally hostile environment of the dust cells eventually 聽wearing down the defenses of the body, killing the immunity cells and replicating.
Annexin1 regulates DC efferocytosis and cross-presentation during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection
Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2014Fanny Tzelepis1, Mark Verway1, Jamal Daoud2, Joshua Gillard1, Kimya Hassani-Ardakani1, Jonathan Dunn1, Jeffrey Downey1, Marilena Elena Gentile1, Joanna Jaworska1, Anthony Michel Jean Sanchez1, Yohann N茅d茅lec3, Hojatollah Vali4, Maryam Tabrizian2, Arnold Scott Kristof1, Irah Luther King1, Luis Bruno Barreiro3 and Maziar Divangahi1