Date:30/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/30/stories/2008093060370600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Breakthrough in TB prevention

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: In an interesting finding, city scientists have identified an antigen which promises to be a drug target for preventing tuberculosis which claims 3.7 lakh lives each year in the country.

The findings of the research were presented at the 13th Human Genome Meeting by Seyed E Hasnain, Vice-Chancellor, University of Hyderabad which collaborated with the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) and the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics on the project. Dr. Hasnain is also an Honorary Distinguished Professor at the ILS.

Talking to The Hindu, Dr. Hasnain said their work had for the first time established that Mycobacterium tuberculosis “feels the pulse” of the immune response of the host by expressing a protein in what has been described as “quorum sensing”. The pathogen secretes the protein to find out how good was the host immune response. It would remain dormant if the host immune response was good. It would become virulent if the immune system was compromised due to malnutrition or co-infection.

He said the problem with Mycobacterium was that it would remain dormant for decades and suddenly the person harbouring it would find TB symptoms. Based on two other antigens identified by the scientists, a US-based diagnostic company would be soon coming out with a kit to detect active TB and distinguish between TB and BCG.