Journal article
Childhood tuberculosis is associated with decreased abundance of T cell gene transcripts and impaired T cell function
C Hemingway, M Berk, ST Anderson, VJ Wright, S Hamilton, H Eleftherohorinou, M Kaforou, GM Goldgof, K Hickman, B Kampmann, J Schoeman, B Eley, D Beatty, S Pienaar, MP Nicol, MJ Griffiths, SJ Waddell, SM Newton, LJ Coin, DA Relman Show all
Plos One | PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE | Published : 2017
Open access
Abstract
The WHO estimates around a million children contract tuberculosis (TB) annually with over 80 000 deaths from dissemination of infection outside of the lungs. The insidious onset and association with skin test anergy suggests failure of the immune system to both recognise and respond to infection. To understand the immune mechanisms, we studied genome-wide whole blood RNA expression in children with TB meningitis (TBM). Findings were validated in a second cohort of children with TBM and pulmonary TB (PTB), and functional T-cell responses studied in a third cohort of children with TBM, other extrapulmonary TB (EPTB) and PTB. The predominant RNA transcriptional response in children with TBM was..
View full abstractGrants
Awarded by Medical Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
The study was supported by a Burroughs-Wellcome Wellcome Trust program grant to Prof Levin, Prof Relman and Prof Eley (grant no: DPPED PC1291; https://wellcome.ac.uk). Suzanne T. Anderson was funded by a Beit Fellowship (grant no: DPPED PC0844; www.beittrust.org.uk). David A. Relman is supported by the Thomas C. and Joan M. Merigan Endowment at Stanford University, and by the Horn Foundation. Beate Kampmann was funded by a WT grant (077273/Z/05/Z). Shea Hamilton and Victoria J. Wright are supported by an EU action for diseases of poverty grant (Sante-2006-105-061; https://ec.europa.eu).