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Mediating immunity to mycobacteria

Nature Genetics volume 21, pages 345–346 (1999)Cite this article

Mammals have evolved and continue to evolve amidst the chaos of malevolent microorganisms. The selective pressure from these microorganisms is immense; infectious disease is still the predominant cause of death in the world and most of those dying are children. Despite this massive toll, most people survive childhood and live to reproductive age. These facts inspire two questions: "Why do people die from infectious diseases?" and "Why do people survive them?". While at first glance, these appear to be two sides of the same coin, they reflect different approaches to studying host susceptibility. To answer the first question, geneticists focus on individuals at significant risk of infection. These fall into two classes—those susceptible to most pathogens due to an immune system that is generally compromised, and those at risk from a subset of pathogens, due to a specific 'hole' in their immune systems. This last set are of particular interest, as their immunological deficits yield insight into which part of the immune system combats a given pathogen. On page 370 of this issue, Emmanuelle Jouanguy and colleagues provide one such example, by exploring the cause of susceptibility to non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM; ref. 1).

Immunologists have been highly successful in identifying the cells and molecular pathways that respond to invasion by micro-pathogens. There has been a delay, however, in translating this cellular and biochemical knowledge to whole animal physiology. The major route open to immunologists is to create mutant mice lacking a critical gene in an immunogical pathway2, an approach that is open to the criticism that humans are not mice. Rarely does one find similar gene 'knock-outs' in humans, but when one does arise, it's an obvious exercise to compare the human and mouse phenotypes.

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  1. The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Victoria, 3050, Australia

    Simon Foote

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  1. Simon Foote
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Foote, S. Mediating immunity to mycobacteria. Nat Genet 21, 345–346 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/7663

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