Immunology: A genetic signature for TB
DOI: 10.1038/nature09247
A newly developed genetic biomarker could aid the development of diagnostic and prognostic tools for tuberculosis (TB), a Nature study suggests.
Anne O’Garra and colleagues analysed the genomes of people with active TB, latent TB (infected but asymptomatic) and healthy controls to produce a so-called transcriptional profile of expressed genes related to the disease. This genetic signature correlates with radiological extent of the disease.
Only around 10% of people with latent TB go on to develop the active disease, but current tests cannot identify those at risk. In this study, around 10% of latent patients displayed the ‘active disease’ transcriptional signature, suggesting that the biomarker may prove useful prognostically as well as diagnostically.
The immune response to the TB-causing microbe Mycobacterium tuberculosis is complex and incompletely characterized, and this study also sheds light on this area. The TB signature is dominated by an interferon-inducible gene profile, which is most evident in neutrophils, white blood cells that form an essential part of our innate immune system.
Author contact
Anne O’Garra (MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London, UK)
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E-mail: [email protected]
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