PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Scientists discover ethnic differences in immune response to TB bacterium

2013-07-05
(Press-News.org) The immune response to the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB) varies between patients of different ethnic origin, raising important implications for the development of tests to diagnose and monitor treatment for the disease, according to new research published today in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

The study, led by researchers at Queen Mary, University of London, in collaboration with the Medical Research Council's National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR),analysed the immune response of 128 newly-diagnosed TB patients in London who were divided by ethnicity into those of African (45), European (27), Asian (55) or mixed European/Asian (1) ancestry.

TB is an infection caused by the TB bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It commonly affects the lungs. While it grew rare in the UK due to BCG vaccination, improvements in living standards and the introduction of effective antibiotic treatment, it has been on the increase since the late 1980s. TB also remains a major global health problem, responsible for nearly nine million new cases and 1.4million deaths in 2011.

By analysing the levels of various inflammatory markers in blood samples taken before treatment, the scientists showed that immune responses of Asians and Europeans were similar to each other, but different from those of Africans. This difference was caused by ethnic variation in the patients' genetic make-up and was not related to the strain of TB bacterium that the patients were infected with.

Dr Adrian Martineau, Reader in Respiratory Infection and Immunity at the Blizard Institute, part of Queen Mary, who led the research, said: "The TB bacterium has co-evolved with humans following migration to Europe and Asia some 70,000 years ago, and different strains of the TB bacterium disproportionately infect particular ethnic groups. Experiments with white blood cells cultured in the lab have shown that different strains of the TB bacterium elicit different amounts of inflammation. One might therefore expect that TB patients' immune responses would differ according to the strain of TB bacterium that they are infected with.

"However our study has shown, for the first time, that it is actually ethnic differences in the patient's genetic make-up that cause most of this variation in immune responses – with little effect of the TB strain they are infected with."

By analysing blood samples taken from 85 of the original cohort after an eight-week period of intensive treatment, the researchers found that ethnic variation in immune responses became even more marked. A number of immunological biomarkers, which correlated with either fast or slow clearance of the TB bacteria, were identified and found to differ between Africans and Europeans/Asians.

Dr Anna Coussens, who measured immune responses in patient samples at NIMR, said: "These findings have important implications, both for the development of new diagnostic tests, which increasingly rely on analysing the immune response, and also for work to identify candidate biomarkers to measure response to anti-TB treatment. In the future, diagnostic tests and biomarkers will need to be validated in different ethnic populations."

A key factor in determining the ethnic variation identified in the study appears to be the patients' genetic type of vitamin D binding protein – a molecule which binds vitamin D in the circulation.

Dr Martineau said: "There are different genetic types of this protein which vary in frequency between ethnic groups, adding to the growing evidence that vitamin D and the way it is carried in the blood is crucial in determining how a patient's immune system will respond to TB."

Further studies in other populations are now needed to validate the ethnic difference identified.

This work was funded by the British Lung Foundation and the Medical Research Council (MRC).

Dr John Moore-Gillon, Honorary Medical Adviser at the British Lung Foundation, which co-funded the research, said:

"Targeted therapies have long been talked about as the future of medicine. However, in order to develop such treatments, you first need to understand the ways in which the genetic makeup of different people can affect how a disease develops in, and affects, the body. This new research makes great strides forward in doing this for TB, highlighting for the first time how using different approaches for people of differing ethnic backgrounds can help improve our ability to diagnose the disease and monitor the effectiveness of any subsequent treatment.

"TB is a growing problem in the UK. With TB bacteria being notoriously difficult to identify and eradicate from the body, research such as this, that helps improve diagnosis and treatment of the disease, will be vital if we are to keep on top of the battle against its spread."

###

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection. The most common type of TB is in the lungs, known as pulmonary TB. While TB can affect any part of the body, only TB of the lungs or throat is infectious.

Before antibiotics were introduced, TB was a major health problem in the UK. While the condition is much less common now it has gradually increased over the last 20 years, particularly among ethnic minority communities who are originally from places where TB is more common.

In 2011, 8,963 cases of TB were reported in the UK, with more than 6,000 of these cases affecting people who were born outside the UK.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

University of East Anglia research reveals true cost of farming to UK economy

2013-07-05
The British landscape is not being used to its best advantage according to a new report from environmental economists from the University of East Anglia (UEA). Research published today in the journal Science shows that allowing land use to be determined purely by an agricultural market, which is distorted by multi-billion pound subsidies, will result in considerable financial and environmental costs to the public. It shows that a shake-up in the way EU subsidies are given out could greatly improve the way UK farm land is managed. While the research has looked specifically ...

Frontiers news briefs: July 4

2013-07-05
Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience Large-scale network organisation in the avian forebrain Birds have been evolving separately from mammals for around 300 million years. So it's hardly surprising that under a microscope, the brain of a bird looks quite different to that of a mammal. Nevertheless, birds have been shown to be remarkably intelligent. They can use tools, make plans, and solve unfamiliar puzzles. How is it that both kinds of brain are capable of these things? A new study published in Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience presents the first large-scale ...

Feeding galaxy caught in distant searchlight

2013-07-05
Astronomers have always suspected that galaxies grow by pulling in material from their surroundings, but this process has proved very difficult to observe directly. Now ESO's Very Large Telescope has been used to study a very rare alignment between a distant galaxy [1] and an even more distant quasar -- the extremely bright centre of a galaxy powered by a supermassive black hole. The light from the quasar passes through the material around the foreground galaxy before reaching Earth, making it possible to explore in detail the properties of the gas around the galaxy [2]. ...

Cosmic radio bursts point to cataclysmic origins

2013-07-05
Mysterious bursts of radio waves originating from billions of light years away have left the scientists who detected them speculating about their origins. The international research team, writing in the journal Science, rule out terrestrial sources for the four fast radio bursts and say their brightness and distance suggest they come from cosmological distances when the Universe was just half its current age. The burst energetics indicate that they originate from an extreme astrophysical event involving relativistic objects such as neutron stars or black holes. Study ...

Technological breakthrough paves the way for better drugs

2013-07-05
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have developed the first method for directly measuring the extent to which drugs reach their targets in the cell. The method, which is described in the scientific journal Science, could make a significant contribution to the development of new, improved drug substances. Most drugs operate by binding to one or more proteins and affecting their function, which creates two common bottlenecks in the development of drugs; identifying the right target proteins and designing drug molecules able to efficiently seek out and bind to ...

Hubble Telescope reveals variation between hot extrasolar planet atmospheres

2013-07-05
First results from the analysis of eight 'hot Jupiter' exoplanets suggest that winds and clouds play an important role in the atmospheric make up of these exotic planets. Catherine Huitson of the University of Exeter will present the results at the National Astronomy Meeting in St Andrews on Friday 5 July. Hot Jupiters are giant exoplanets, similar in size to Jupiter, that orbit so close to their stars that their atmospheres can reach temperatures of 1000-3000 degrees Celsius. Astronomers can detect which gases are present in their atmospheres by analysing the spectrum ...

Australian physicists cast new light on spin-bowling

2013-07-05
As the Ashes series gets underway next week, a pair of brothers from Australia have been exploring the physics behind the spin of a cricket ball. While physicists are much more accustomed to measuring the spin of electrons, protons and neutrons, Garry and Ian Robinson, Honorary Visiting Fellows at the University of New South Wales and the University of Melbourne respectively, have presented equations that govern the trajectory of a spinning ball as it moves through the air in the presence of a wind. Their paper has been published today, 5 July, in Physica Scripta -- ...

Study reveals ancient jigsaw puzzle of past supercontinent

2013-07-05
A new study published today in the journal Gondwana Research, has revealed the past position of the Australian, Antarctic and Indian tectonic plates, demonstrating how they formed the supercontinent Gondwana 165 million years ago. Researchers from Royal Holloway University, The Australian National University and Geoscience Australia, have helped clear up previous uncertainties on how the plates evolved and where they should be positioned when drawing up a picture of the past. Dr Lloyd White from the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway University said: "The ...

New research could pave the way to safer treatments for arthritis

2013-07-05
The increased risk of heart attack or stroke associated with many arthritis drugs may be avoidable, according to a new international study co-authored by researchers at Imperial College London. Drugs such as Vioxx, diclofenac, ibuprofen and Celebrex operate by blocking an enzyme known as COX-2, whose presence in blood vessels has up until now been held responsible for these side effects. New research carried out on mice has revealed that COX-2 is largely absent from the major blood vessels and instead found in the brain, gut, and kidney as well as the thymus gland in ...

Brain epigenome changes from birth to adolescence

2013-07-05
Experience of parents with their children and teachers with their students demonstrate how kids change their behaviours and knowledge from infancy to adolescence. Until now, little was known of the causes that could lead to these changes. Today, an article published in Science in collaboration with the group of Manel Esteller, Director of Epigenetics and Cancer Biology Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), ICREA researcher and Professor of Genetics at the University of Barcelona, gives us an important clue to understanding this process. Researchers have discovered ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Using lightning to make ammonia out of thin air

Machine learning potential-driven insights into pH-dependent CO₂ reduction

Physician associates provide safe care for diagnosed patients when directly supervised by a doctor

How game-play with robots can bring out their human side

Asthma: patient expectations influence the course of the disease

UNM physician tests drug that causes nerve tissue to emit light, enabling faster, safer surgery

New study identifies EMP1 as a key driver of pancreatic cancer progression and poor prognosis

XPR1 identified as a key regulator of ovarian cancer growth through autophagy and immune evasion

Flexible, eco-friendly electronic plastic for wearable tech, sensors

Can the Large Hadron Collider snap string theory?

Stuckeman professor’s new book explores ‘socially sustainable’ architecture

Synthetic DNA nanoparticles for gene therapy

New model to find treatments for an aggressive blood cancer

Special issue of Journal of Intensive Medicine analyzes non-invasive respiratory support

T cells take aim at Chikungunya virus

Gantangqing site in southwest China yields 300,000-year-old wooden tools

Forests can’t keep up: Adaptation will lag behind climate change

Sturgeon reintroduction initiative yields promising first-year survival rate

Study: Babies’ poor vision may help organize visual brain pathways

Research reveals Arctic region was permafrost-free when global temperatures were 4.5˚ C higher than today

Novel insights into chromophobe renal cell carcinoma biology and potential therapeutic strategies

A breakthrough in motor safety: AI-powered warning system enhances capability to uncover hidden winding faults

Research teases apart competing transcription organization models

Connect or reject: Extensive rewiring builds binocular vision in the brain

Benefits and risks: informal use of antibiotics to prevent sexually transmitted infections on the rise in key populations in the Netherlands

New molecular tool sheds light on how cancer cells repair telomeres

First large-scale stem cell bank enables worldwide studies on genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease

Hearing devices significantly improve social lives of those with hearing loss

CNIC scientists reveal how the cellular energy system evolved—and how this knowledge could improve the diagnosis of rare genetic diseases

AI sharpens pathologists' interpretation of tissue samples

[Press-News.org] Scientists discover ethnic differences in immune response to TB bacterium