Barry ,
It's not that simple. First of all many cases of MDR in NYC have arisen
due to the immunocompromisation of the host (i.e., AIDS) . Macrophages,
even activated macrophages are not the only necessary factor to kill TB,
even though they are macrophage resident. Our laboratory has shown that
TB can escape the phagolysosome, and reside in the cytoplasm, thus evading
macrophage killing, as well as antigen presentation in a class II
restricted manner. Class I presentation may still occur, and work done
with CD8 and B2M knockout mice show the critical involvement of cytotoxic
T cell killers in eradicating the disease.
Gamma is clearly necessary, as is TNF alpha, and you may want to look up
papers by our laboratory, the laboratory of Barry Bloom, as well as Robert
Modlin.
I'd be happy to help you with any further inquiries.
-Rachel Teitelbaum
Bloom lab
teitelba at aecom.yu.edu
On Thu, 3 Nov 1994, Barry
Mook wrote:
> Dear Fellow Biologists,
>> I am a student at Swarthmore College, PA and am currently taking a MicoBio
> seminar in which we are required to present a proposal which we put
> together ourselves. I have chosen to work on tuberculosis (Mycobacterium
> Tuberculosis) and to take a closer look at what possible alternatives to
> using antibiotics would be. Currently, isoniazid, ethionamide, ethambutol,
> pyrazidamide or a combination of any of these are being used to treat the
> disease. Because of incorrect or incomplete usage of these drugs, however,
> resistance is developing quite rapidly. Drug resistant strains of TB can
> be found mostly in Africa and some parts of India.
> My question to you is the following: Can you help me find some references
> on the activation of Macrophages in which the Mycobacteria remain for an
> extended period of time? If so, what is the name of the protein or factor
> that does so and where does it map to? So far, I have been able to find
> some info on IFN-gamma, but not on its gene location...if you know
> something I don't, please drop me a short note over e-mail...thanks
>>> Barry
>>bmook1 at cc.swarthmore.edu>
