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| Mycobacterium tuberculosis--Courtesy of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases |
Scientists have pinpointed a protein that plays a role in protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in people who are infected with the pathogen.
The protein, interleukin-32, may serve as a biomarker to help identify people who are at greatest risk for developing tuberculosis. The finding could also aid in the development of new treatment strategies against the bacterium, which infects one-third of the world's population.
Working with researchers from Harvard University School of Public Health and the University of Michigan School of Medicine, UCLA investigators found that the protective protein, interleukin-32, has the ability to destroy the tuberculosis bacterium but only in the presence of sufficient levels of vitamin D.
This would explain why people with latent TB have not developed symptoms of the disease despite being infected by the bacterium.
The research was published in the Aug. 20 online edition of the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Investigators conducted gene expression profiling in hundreds of TB patients from four countries and analyzed genes from activated immune cells shown in the laboratory to have the ability to kill the TB bacteria. They found that in TB-infected individuals with higher levels of interleukin-32 (IL-32), the disease was more likely to be latent.
In laboratory experiments, IL-32 was able to harness the immune system to kill the TB bacteria but only if vitamin D levels were high enough.
The researchers have applied for a patent application to further develop IL-32 as a potential diagnostic marker to determine which patients with latent TB are at risk for activation of the disease, as well as for use as a possible therapeutic to treat TB by stimulating antimicrobial activity.
- read the press release
- see the study abstract