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Latent tuberculosis: what the host “sees”?

2011; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 50; Issue: 2-3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/s12026-011-8229-7

1559-0755

Hannah P. Gideon, JoAnne L. Flynn,

Diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), is the most successful pathogen of mankind and remains a major threat to global health as the leading cause of death due to a bacterial pathogen. Yet 90–95% of those who are infected with MTB remain otherwise healthy. These people are classified as “latently infected,” but remain a reservoir from which active TB cases will continue to develop (“reactivation tuberculosis”). Latent infection is defined by the absence of clinical symptoms of TB in addition to a delayed hypersensitivity reaction to the purified protein derivative of MTB used in tuberculin skin test or a T-cell response to MTB-specific antigens. In the absence of reliable control measures for tuberculosis, understanding latent MTB infection and subsequent reactivation is a research priority. This review aims to summarize the recent findings in human and non-human primate models of tuberculosis that have led to new concepts of latent tuberculosis.