[Research Articles] Immune correlates of tuberculosis disease and risk translate across species

In this study, we have provided an in-depth identification of the conserved and diversified gene/immune pathways in TB models of nonhuman primate and diversity outbred mouse and human TB. Our results show that prominent differentially expressed genes/pathways induced during TB disease progression are conserved in genetically diverse mice, macaques, and humans. In addition, using gene-deficient inbred mouse models, we have addressed the functional role of individual genes comprising the gene signature of disease progression seen in humans with Mtb infection. We show that genes representing specific immune pathways can be protective, detrimental, or redundant in controlling Mtb infection and translate into identifying immune pathways that mediate TB immunopathology in humans. Together, our cross-species findings provide insights into modeling TB disease and the immunological basis of TB disease progression.

Source: Science Translational Medicine - January 28, 2020 Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Ahmed, M., Thirunavukkarasu, S., Rosa, B. A., Thomas, K. A., Das, S., Rangel-Moreno, J., Lu, L., Mehra, S., Mbandi, S. K., Thackray, L. B., Diamond, M. S., Murphy, K. M., Means, T., Martin, J., Kaushal, D., Scriba, T. J., Mitreva, M., Khader, S. A. Tags: Research Articles Source Type: research