Skip to contents
In This Issue:
The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 1.6 billion people—one third of the world’s population—are infected with tuberculosis (TB). With few resources available to diagnose and effectively treat this infectious disease in developing countries, BWH investigators are unlocking new research opportunities to help in the fight against TB.
“About 90 percent of people infected with the TB bacteria don’t exhibit symptoms, yet over the course of their lifetime, the bacteria might become active. When that happens, they will spread it to healthy people through casual contact,” said David Branch Moody, MD, of the Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy, and director of the Moody Lab.
Research on TB over the last three decades has shown that the key cell that inhibits TB from being reactivated in an infected patient is a T cell, but finding out which T cells are activated during infection has been the challenge.
Moody Lab researchers believe the answer is the CD1b-restricted T cell and, through an elaborate research method, they have been able to isolate and tag it with fluorescent light for further study.
Branch Moody, along with investigator Anne Kasmar, MD, MSc, and colleagues at Emory University, recently published research findings that show CD1b-restricted T cells exist in natural, human TB infection—a discovery that may lead to better understanding of the disease and finding a faster way to accurately diagnose it.
Branch Moody will present these findings at a conference in Chicago this month.
“Using this new molecule, we can now isolate CD1b-restricted T cells from people. This technology unlocks new research opportunities to explore whether these cells have the potential to help fight TB and whether they can be developed as targets of new TB vaccines,” said Kasmar.
This fall, Kasmar will travel to Durban, South Africa, to work with colleagues as part of an ongoing research effort that was initiated by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa to conduct basic science research on tuberculosis (TB) and HIV, translate the scientific findings into new tools to controlw TB and HIV, and expand the educational opportunities in the region.
“TB is one of the oldest and most studied diseases, but it has taken a backseat to other infectious diseases,” said Branch Moody. “It’s often forgotten what a global burden TB has around the world.”