T cell receptor repertoires associated with control and disease progression following Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection
- Journal:
- Nature Medicine
- Published:
- DOI:
- 10.1038/s41591-022-02110-9
- Affiliations:
- 34
- Authors:
- 146
Research Highlight
Finding tuberculosis’ weak spots
© KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images
Promising protein targets for a new generation of tuberculosis vaccines have been identified.
Tuberculosis claims about 1.6 million lives globally each year. The one approved vaccine for the disease fails to provide full protection.
Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, which came into their own in the fight against COVID, are promising for protecting against tuberculosis. But researchers first need to identify best regions of the tuberculosis bacterium to target with new vaccines.
Now, a team that included researchers from the University of Cape Town in South Africa has identified proteins produced by the tuberculosis bacterium that are recognized by immune cells known as T-cells.
They did this by analyzing blood samples from two groups of South African high school students who had been exposed to the bacterium: those who went on to develop full-blown tuberculosis within two years and those who didn’t.
References
- Nature Medicine 29, 258–269 (2023). doi: 10.1038/s41591-022-02110-9