Genetics and evolution of tuberculosis pathogenesis: New perspectives and approaches.

Genetics and evolution of tuberculosis pathogenesis: New perspectives and approaches. Infect Genet Evol. 2020 Jan 22;:104204 Authors: McHenry ML, Williams SM, Stein CM Abstract Tuberculosis is the most lethal infectious disease globally, but the vast majority of people who are exposed to the primary causative pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), do not develop active disease. Most people do, however, show signs of infection that remain throughout their lifetimes. In this review, we develop of framework that describes several possible transitions from pathogen exposure to TB disease and reflect on the genetics studies to address many of these. The evidence strongly supports a human genetic component for both infection and active disease, but many of the existing studies, including some of our own, do not clearly delineate what transition(s) is being explicitly examined. This can make interpretation difficult in terms of why only some people develop active disease. Nonetheless, both linkage peaks and associations with either active disease or latent infection have been identified. For transition to active disease, pathways defined as active TB altered T and B cell signaling in rheumatoid arthritis and T helper cell differentiation are significantly associated. Pathways that affect transition from exposure to infection are less clear-cut, as studies of this phenotype are less common, and a primary response, if it exists, is not y...
Source: Infection, Genetics and Evolution - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Infect Genet Evol Source Type: research