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Revisiting the Natural History of Tuberculosis

The Inclusion of Constant Reinfection, Host Tolerance, and Damage-Response Frameworks Leads to a Better Understanding of Latent Infection and its Evolution towards Active Disease

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Archivum Immunologiae et Therapiae Experimentalis Aims and scope

Abstract

Once Mycobacterium tuberculosis infects a person it can persist for a long time in a process called latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). LTBI has traditionally been considered to involve the bacilli remaining in a non-replicating state (dormant) in old lesions but still retaining their ability to induce reactivation and cause active tuberculosis (TB) once a disruption of the immune response takes place. The present review aims to challenge these concepts by including recent experimental data supporting LTBI as a constant endogenous reinfection process as well as the recently introduced concepts of damage-response and tolerance frameworks to explain TB induction. These frameworks highlight the key role of an exaggerated and intolerant host response against M. tuberculosis bacilli which induces the classical TB cavity in immunocompetent adults once the constant endogenous reinfection process has resulted in the presence of bacilli in the upper lobes, where they can grow faster and the immune response is delayed. This essay intends to provide new clues to understanding the induction of TB in non-immunosuppressed patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unitat de Tuberculosi Experimental, Department of Microbiology, Fundació Institut per a la Investigació en Ciències de la Salut Germans Trias i Pujol, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Crta. del can Ruti, camí de les escoles s/n, 08916, Badalona, Catalonia, Spain

    Pere-Joan Cardona

  2. CIBER Enfermedades Respiratorias, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    Pere-Joan Cardona

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Correspondence to Pere-Joan Cardona.

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Cardona, PJ. Revisiting the Natural History of Tuberculosis. Arch. Immunol. Ther. Exp. 58, 7–14 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00005-009-0062-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00005-009-0062-5

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