Nature Medicine
7, 732 - 737 (2001)
doi:10.1038/89113
Overexpression of heat-shock proteins reduces survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the chronic phase of infectionGraham R. Stewart1, Valerie A. Snewin1, Gerhard Walzl2, Tracy Hussell2, Peter Tormay1, Peadar O'Gaora1, Madhu Goyal3, Joanna Betts4, Ivor N. Brown1
& Douglas B. Young11
Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Centre for Molecular Microbiology and Infection, Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, London, UK
2
Department of Biochemistry, Centre for Molecular Microbiology and Infection, Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, London, UK
3
Department of Biosciences, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK
4
GlaxoSmithKline, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, UK
Correspondence should be addressed to Graham R. Stewart g.stewart@ic.ac.ukElevated expression of heat-shock proteins (HSPs) can benefit a microbial pathogen struggling to penetrate host defenses during infection, but at the same time might provide a crucial signal alerting the host immune system to its presence. To determine which of these effects predominate, we constructed a mutant strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis that constitutively overexpresses Hsp70 proteins. Although the mutant was fully virulent in the initial stage of infection, it was significantly impaired in its ability to persist during the subsequent chronic phase. Induction of microbial genes encoding HSPs might provide a novel strategy to boost the immune response of individuals with latent tuberculosis infection.
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