Scherr Nicole, Jayachandran Rajesh, Mueller Philipp, Pieters Jean
Biozentrum, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 50, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
Indian J Exp Biol. 2009 Jun;47(6):401-6.
Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has become an important health and economic burden, with more than four thousand people succumbing to the disease every day. Thus, there is an urgent need to understand the molecular basis of this pathogen's success in causing disease in humans, in order to develop new drugs superior to conventional drugs available at present. One reason why M. tuberculosis is such a dangerous microbe lies within its ability to survive within infected hosts, thereby efficiently circumventing host immune responses. Over the past few years, a number of mechanisms have been unravelled that are utilized by M. tuberculosis to survive within hosts and to avoid immune defence mechanisms. Several of these mechanisms have been described in this communication that may be useful for the development of novel compounds to treat tuberculosis.
由结核分枝杆菌引起的结核病已成为一项重大的健康和经济负担，每天有超过四千人死于该病。因此，迫切需要了解这种病原体在人类致病过程中取得成功的分子基础，以便开发出比目前可用的传统药物更优的新药。结核分枝杆菌之所以是一种如此危险的微生物，其原因之一在于它有能力在受感染宿主体内存活，从而有效地规避宿主的免疫反应。在过去几年里，已经揭示了结核分枝杆菌用于在宿主体内存活并逃避免疫防御机制的多种机制。本文描述了其中的几种机制，这些机制可能有助于开发治疗结核病的新型化合物。
