The ability of CD8+ T cells to kill intracellular pathogens depends upon their capacity to attract infected cells as well as their secretion of cytolytic and antimicrobial effector molecules. We examined the Ag-induced expression of three immune effector molecules contained within cytoplasmic granules of human CD8+ T cells: the chemokine CCL5, the cytolytic molecule perforin, and the antimicrob...

Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic infectious disease mainly caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis). The structures of polysaccharides and glycolipids at M. cell wall vary among different strains, which affect the physiology pathogenesis mycobacteria activating or inhibiting innate acquired immunity. Among them, some components such as lipomannan (LM) lipoarabinomannan (LAM) activat...

BACKGROUND In vivo kinetics and frequencies of epitope-specific CD4 T cells in lymphoid compartments during M. tuberculosis infection and their resting memory pool after BCG vaccination remain unknown. METHODOLOGY/FINDINGS Macaque DR*W201 tetramer loaded with Ag85B peptide 65 was developed to directly measure epitope-specific CD4 T cells in blood and tissues form macaques after M. tuberculosi...

Initiation of the adaptive immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis occurs in the lung-draining mediastinal lymph node and requires transport of M. tuberculosis by migratory dendritic cells (DCs) to the local lymph node. The previously published observations that 1) neutrophils are a transiently prominent population of M. tuberculosis-infected cells in the lungs early in infection and 2) t...

BACKGROUND Susceptibility to tuberculosis is not only determined by Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, but also by the genetic component of the host. Macrophage receptor with a collagenous structure (MARCO) is essential components required for toll like receptor-signaling in macrophage response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which may contribute to tuberculosis risk. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS To ...

Tuberculous pericarditis is a rare disease in developed countries. The diagnosis is difficult to set since there are no robust rapid tests, and culture of pericardial fluid for Mycobacterium tuberculosis is often negative. T-SPOT.TB, an enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) test, measures the gamma interferon response of lymphocytes against tuberculosis antigens and can be performed on blood and b...

The diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis (plTB) by the analysis of pleural effusions (PEs) with standard diagnostic tools is difficult. In routine clinical practice, the present authors evaluated the performance of a commercially available Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB)-specific enzyme-linked immunospot assay on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and pleural effusion mononuclear cells (P...

Numerous immunological defects begin to emerge as an individual ages, the consequence of which is heightened susceptibility to infectious diseases. Despite this decline in immune function, old mice display an early transient resistance to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in the lung, which is dependent on CD8 T cells and gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) production. In this study, we investigate...

Culture filtrate protein 10 (CFP-10) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a well-characterized immunodominant 10-kDa protein antigen known to elicit a very potent early gamma interferon response in T cells from M. tuberculosis-infected mice and humans. The sequence of the Mycobacterium leprae homologue of CFP-10 shows only 40% identity (60% homology) at the protein level with M. tuberculosis CFP-...