Insights into protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection: time to officially confirm another phenotype?
editorial · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40166935.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1172/JCI191423 and PMC identifier 11957686.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Immune correlates of protection against infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) remain elusive. In this issue of the JCI, Dallmann-Sauer and authors demonstrate that lack of tuberculin skin test (TST) and interferon γ release assay (IGRA) conversion among people with HIV despite years-long Mtb exposure is associated with alveolar lymphocytosis, including specific poly-cytotoxic T cells, and M1-type alveolar macrophages with a stronger ex vivo response to the pathogen. Studies in these rare individuals, termed "TB resisters" and in tuberculosis household contacts who are repeatedly IGRA negative in the months after a specific exposure event (known as "early clearers") help elucidate manipulatable mechanisms to boost protection against Mtb infection.
Medical subject headings
- Mycobacterium tuberculosis
- Tuberculosis