Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) inhibits phagosomal maturation to promote its survival inside macrophages. Control of MTB infection requires CD4 T cell responses and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II (MHC-II) processing of MTB antigens (Ags). To investigate phagosomal processing of MTB Ags, phagosomes containing heat-killed (HK) or live MTB were purified from interferon-gamma (IF...

In our recently published paper “Integrating the Xpert MTB/RIF Assay into a Diagnostic Workflow for Rapid Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a Low-Prevalence Area” (1), we express our concerns on the accurate reporting of RIF results by the Xpert MTB/RIF assay and its limited use for nonrespiratory samples. With interest, we read the comments of Blaich and Frei (2) on our paper, in whic...

the voltammetric characteristics of mo (vi) oxinate at the mercury electrode, in the presence of tri-butylammonium perchlorate (tri-bap) and piperidinium perchlorate (pp) + piperidine (p) as  two different types supporting electrolytes, have been studied in chloroform. with the both supporting electrolytes a two electron irreversible process for the reduction  of mo (vi) oxinate was observed. p...

There is a recent emerging theory that suggests a cross-link between pathogens and cancer. In this context, we examined the association between the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) with its L-forms (MTB-L) and lung cancer. In the present study, we have optimized and applied a highly sensitive assay to detect the presence of MTB and MTB-L in 187 lung cancer samples and 39 samples of other cancer...

We previously showed that viable Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) bacilli contain distinct ligands that activate cells via the mammalian Toll-like receptor (TLR) proteins TLR2 and TLR4. We now demonstrate that expression of a dominant negative TLR2 or TLR4 proteins in RAW 264.7 macrophages partially blocked Mtb-induced NF-kappa B activation. Coexpression of both dominant negative proteins block...

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-restricted CD8(+) T cells play a critical role in the protective immunity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). However, only a few Mtb peptides recognized by MHC class Ia-restricted CD8(+) T cells have been identified. Information on epitopes recognized by class Ib-restricted T cells is even more limited. M3 is an MHC class Ib molecule that pr...

The aim of this study was to better evaluate the impact on-site electro-generated hypochlorite for water disinfection. For venture, daily variability hypochlorite-generating systems and their performance produce low disinfection by-products during formation were observed. Seven installations, selected at different swimming pool facilities in Switzerland. Active chlorine (AC), two chlorate (ClO3...

The ability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) to thrive in its phagosomal niche is critical for its establishment of a chronic infection. This requires that Mtb senses and responds to intraphagosomal signals such as pH. We hypothesized that Mtb would respond to additional intraphagosomal factors that correlate with maturation. Here, we demonstrate that [Cl⁻] and pH correlate inversely with ph...

Despite considerable progress in understanding the pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), development of new therapeutics and vaccines against it has proven difficult. This is at least in part due to the use of less than optimal models of in-vivo Mtb infection, which has precluded a study of the physiology of the pathogen in niches where it actually persists. C3HeB/FeJ (Kramnik) mice...