title: Understanding immune protection against tuberculosis using RNA expression profiling.
abstract: A major limitation in the development and testing of new tuberculosis (TB) vaccines is the current inadequate understanding of the nature of the immune response required for protection against either infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) or progression to disease. Genome wide RNA expression analysis has provided a new tool with which to study the inflammatory and immunological response to mycobacteria. To explore how currently available transcriptomic data might be used to understand the basis of protective immunity to MTB, we analysed and reviewed published RNA expression studies to (1) identify a "susceptible" immune response in patients with acquired defects in the interferon gamma pathway; (2) identify the "failing" transcriptomic response in patients with TB as compared with latent TB infection (LTBI); and (3) identify elements of the "protective" response in healthy latently infected and healthy uninfected individuals.
authors.affiliation: Section of Paediatrics and Wellcome Trust Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: von Both
authors.affiliation: Section of Paediatrics and Wellcome Trust Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, United Kingdom; Department of Genomics of Common Disease, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Myrsini
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaforou
authors.affiliation: Section of Paediatrics and Wellcome Trust Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: m.levin@imperial.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Levin
authors.affiliation: Section of Paediatrics and Wellcome Trust Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Sandra M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Newton
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D055985:Latent Tuberculosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012313:RNA / Q000235:genetics*; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D032581:Tuberculosis Vaccines / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D032581:Tuberculosis Vaccines; D012313:RNA; D007371:Interferon-gamma
keywords: Interferon-γ; RNA expression profiling; Transcriptomics; Tuberculosis; Type I interferon; Vaccines