Researchers find immune system molecule that could lead to TB vaccine

A research team led by scientists from the University of Pittsburgh recently determined that the presence of a particular immune system molecule effectively prevented tuberculosis of the lungs from becoming active and deadly. The National Institutes of Health-funded study researched human and animal TB-infected cells. The researchers examined the clusters of immune cells that surround infected lung cells. “A hallmark of TB that we see on chest X-rays is the granuloma, a collection of immune cells that surround the infected lung cells,” Shabaana A. Khader, the study’s senior author, said. “But what we didn’t know was the difference between a functioning protective granuloma, as in latent TB, and a non-protective granuloma seen in active TB patients. We aimed to find immunologic markers that could show us the status of the infection.” The scientists found that granulomas containing ectopic lymphoid structures were associated with effective TB suppression. The immune cells, known as T cells,...