Host–Pathogen Interactions in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
A special issue of Pathogens (ISSN 2076-0817). This special issue belongs to the section "Bacterial Pathogens".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2022) | Viewed by 2550
Special Issue Editors
Interests: Mycobacterium tuberculosis; tuberculosis; legionellosis; COVID-19
Interests: Mycobacterium tuberculosis; tuberculosis; biomarkers; whole genome sequencing; tuberculosis control
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Tuberculosis (TB) caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) complex remains one of the most prevalent and deadly infectious diseases, responsible for 10 million cases and 1.45 million deaths worldwide in 2018. After a primary infection stage, in most subjects, Mtb persists in the macrophages, thus, escaping the host immune system, a condition known as latent tuberculosis (LTBI). Individuals with LTBI have a 5–10% lifetime risk of developing active TB, further increased by immunosuppression. During LTBI, Mtb avoids phagosome-lysosome fusion to establish residence in the macrophage cytoplasm and persists in a specific metabolic state called dormancy. TB disease, therefore, requires a long duration of antibiotic treatment to achieve the sterilization of both the multiplying and dormant bacilli. In addition, there is an alarming increase of multi-resistant drug TB cases. Therefore, a better understanding of the mechanisms leading to the development of the disease is urgently needed to develop efficient strategies against TB.
The immune response to Mtb is complex and incompletely characterized, hampering the development of new diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines. In-depth knowledge of host–pathogen interactions may enable new strategies to tackle TB diseases. This includes vaccines to efficiently prevent TB development, diagnostic tests to early identify LTBI individuals more likely to develop active disease, prognostic tests to better assess treatment efficacy and rapidly detect patients that require personalized management to prevent treatment failure.
For this Special Issue of Pathogens, authors are invited to submit an original research article or a review focusing on new insights of the host–pathogen interactions in Mtb infections and how they would translate to the clinical setting to enable improved management of TB patients.
Dr. Florence Ader
Dr. Oana Dumitrescu
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- Mycobacterium tuberculosis
- tuberculosis
- biomarkers
- whole-genome sequencing
- tuberculosis management
- tuberculosis control
