 |
|
Researchers discover ancient origins of tuberculosis-causing bacteria
August 19, 2005The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is pleased to offer a preview of PLoS Pathogens (http://www.plospathogens.org) a new open-access, peer-reviewed journal that will premiere on September 30, 2005. The journal is led by Editor-in-Chief John A.T. Young, a professor in the Infectious Disease Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Bacteria, fungi, parasites, prions, and viruses cause a plethora of diseases with significant medical, agricultural, and economic consequences. PLoS Pathogens will publish rigorously peer-reviewed papers that reflect the full breadth of pathogens research. "Understanding pathogens and how they interact with their hosts is one of the most serious scientific challenges we face," Young says.
All works published in PLoS Pathogens are open access-everything published is immediately available without cost to anyone to read, download, redistribute, include in databases, and otherwise use, subject only to the condition that the original authorship is properly attributed.
In this article preview, available online August 19, researchers describe the origin and evolution of the pathogens that cause tuberculosis.
Researchers discover ancient origins of tuberculosis-causing bacteria
Researchers have long considered tuberculosis, a bacterial respiratory disease that kills 3 million people each year, a relatively recent human affliction. But a new study in PLoS Pathogens suggests that the disease and the pathogens responsible are much older than previously thought.
"Our results change the current paradigm of the recent origin of tuberculosis," says Veronique Vincent, senior author of the study and researcher at Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. These results may have important future implications for improving diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
Most tuberculosis cases are caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its close relatives. However, some tuberculosis patients from East Africa are infected with unusual bacterial strains that form colonies that appear physically different from M. tuberculosis. Using genetic data from the different strains, Vincent and her colleagues discovered that the ancestors of these bacterial strains were also the progenitors of M. tuberculosis.
These results suggest that M. tuberculosis and related strains recently emerged from a much more ancient bacterial species than previously thought, possibly as old as 3 million years, Vincent says. "Tuberculosis could thus be much older than the plague, typhoid fever, or malaria, and might have affected early hominids," and its expansion to the rest of the world may have coincided with the waves of human migration out of Africa.
Public Library of Science
In this article preview, available online August 19, researchers describe the origin and evolution of the pathogens that cause tuberculosis.
Researchers discover ancient origins of tuberculosis-causing bacteria
Researchers have long considered tuberculosis, a bacterial respiratory disease that kills 3 million people each year, a relatively recent human affliction. But a new study in PLoS Pathogens suggests that the disease and the pathogens responsible are much older than previously thought.
"Our results change the current paradigm of the recent origin of tuberculosis," says Veronique Vincent, senior author of the study and researcher at Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. These results may have important future implications for improving diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
Most tuberculosis cases are caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its close relatives. However, some tuberculosis patients from East Africa are infected with unusual bacterial strains that form colonies that appear physically different from M. tuberculosis. Using genetic data from the different strains, Vincent and her colleagues discovered that the ancestors of these bacterial strains were also the progenitors of M. tuberculosis.
These results suggest that M. tuberculosis and related strains recently emerged from a much more ancient bacterial species than previously thought, possibly as old as 3 million years, Vincent says. "Tuberculosis could thus be much older than the plague, typhoid fever, or malaria, and might have affected early hominids," and its expansion to the rest of the world may have coincided with the waves of human migration out of Africa.
Public Library of Science
Tuberculosis Current Events and Tuberculosis News RSSRoad mapping could be key to curing TB
The complex chain of metabolic events in bacteria that lead to fatal diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) may be better understood using mathematical models, according to an article published in the February issue of Microbiology Today.
New vaccine effective in preventing TB in African patients with HIV infection
Investigators from Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) have reported results of a clinical trial showing that a new vaccine against tuberculosis, Mycobacterium vaccae (MV), is effective in preventing tuberculosis in people with HIV infection.
Researchers find that common stomach pathogen may protect against tuberculosis
It's been implicated as the bacterium that causes ulcers and the majority of stomach cancers, but studies by researchers at Stanford University, UC Davis, and the University of Pittsburgh have found that Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) also may play a protective role - against the worldwide killer, tuberculosis (TB).
Diabetes epidemic in First Nations adults, especially women in prime reproductive years
The incidence of diabetes was more than 4 times higher in First Nations women compared to non-First Nations women and more than 2.5 times higher in First Nations compared to non-First Nations men.
Each pound at birth lowers risk of developing TB
Just one more pound may help a newborn avoid tuberculosis later in life.
Study finds H1N1 virus spreads easily by plane
Viruses love plane travel. They get to fly around the world inside a closed container while their infected carrier breathes and coughs, spreading pathogens to other passengers, either by direct contact or through the air. And once people deplane, the virus can spread to other geographical areas.
Study casts doubt on provocative tuberculosis theory
The tuberculosis bacterium is an insidious germ that can lie dormant for many years, then suddenly emerge and cause potentially fatal disease.
Leprosy susceptibility genes reported in New England Journal of Medicine paper
In the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of leprosy and the largest GWAS on an infectious disease, scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and 26 institutes in China identified seven genes that increase an individual's susceptibility to leprosy.
DNA of Jesus-era shrouded man in Jerusalem reveals earliest case of leprosy
The DNA of a 1st century shrouded man found in a tomb on the edge of the Old City of Jerusalem has revealed the earliest proven case of leprosy. Details of the research will be published December 16 in the PloS ONE Journal.
Multiple health concerns surface as winter, vitamin D deficiences arrive
A string of recent discoveries about the multiple health benefits of vitamin D has renewed interest in this multi-purpose nutrient, increased awareness of the huge numbers of people who are deficient in it, spurred research and even led to an appreciation of it as "nature's antibiotic."
More Tuberculosis Current Events and Tuberculosis News Articles
 |
Tuberculosis: A Comprehensive Clinical Reference by H. Simon Schaaf MBChB(Stellenbosch) MMed Paed(Stellenbosch) DCM(Stellenbosch) MD Paed(Stellenbosch) (Editor), Alimuddin I. Zumla BSc MBChB MSc PhD(Lond) FRCP(Lond) FRCP(Edin) (Editor) This book provides all the vital information you need to know about tuberculosis, especially in the face of drug-resistant strains of the disease. Coverage includes which patient populations face an elevated risk of infection, as well as which therapies are appropriate and how to correctly monitor ongoing treatment so that patients are cured. Properly administer screening tests, interpret their results, and identify manifestations of the disease, with authoritative guidance from expert clinicians from around the world. Discusses screening tests for tuberculosis so you can interpret their results and identify not only common manifestations of the disease, but also those that are comparatively rare-such as tuberculosis in pregnant women. Covers all clinical aspects of tuberculosis... |
 |
The White Plague: Tuberculosis, Man and Society by Jean Dubos (Author) |
 |
The Forgotten Plague: How the Battle Against Tuberculosis Was Won - And Lost by Frank Ryan (Author) Tuberculosis has claimed more than a billion lives worldwide. In this acclaimed book, Dr. Frank Ryan tells the remarkable story of the dedicated doctors, chemists, and bacteriologists who halted the course of this ferocious disease--until the "old enemy" found in AIDS a deadly ally to form a drug-resistant synergy. 8 pages of photos. |
 |
The Bioarchaeology of Tuberculosis: A Global View on a Reemerging Disease by CHARLOTTE ROBERTS (Author), JANE BUIKSTRA (Author) Though apparently in decline during the first half of the 20th century, tuberculosis has reawakened in both developed and developing countries, particularly among susceptible populations with immunodeficiency disorders. |
 |
Captain of Death: The Story of Tuberculosis by Thomas M. Daniel (Author) The dramatic story of tuberculosis is told here in a straightforward and accessible style. It presents the stories of persons connected with the disease, either as victims, or as those who made contributions to our knowledge of it; in addition to these personal accounts, the book unfolds the history and explains the pathogenesis of TB. The re-emergence of tuberculosis as a major American public health hazard has focused much attention on this ancient disease. This book offers a comprehensive account of the disease from prehistoric times through to the present day, detailing the attempts to eradicate it completely. Its four separate sections (the spread of tuberculosis; its infectious nature; susceptibility to it; and methods of treatment) are linked through the device of presenting... |
 |
Living in the Shadow of Death: Tuberculosis and the Social Experience of Illness in American History by Sheila M. Rothman (Author) For more than 150 years, until well into the twentieth century, tuberculosis was the dreaded scourge that AIDS is for us today. Based on the diaries and letters of hundreds of individuals over five generations, Living in the Shadow of Death is the first book to present an intimate and evocative portrait of what it was like for patients as well as families and communities to struggle against this dreaded disease. "Consumption", as it used to be called, is one of the oldest known diseases. But it wasn't until the beginning of the nineteenth century that it became pervasive and feared in the United States, the cause of one out of every five deaths. Consumption crossed all boundaries of geography and social class. How did people afflicted with the disease deal with their fate? How did their... |
 |
Tuberculosis (TUBERCULOSIS ( ROM)) by William N Rom (Editor), Stuart M Garay (Editor) New York Univ., NY. Summarizes the current advances in tuberculosis and discusses the pathology and pathogenesis of the disease. Also covers complications and treatment options. Chapters include history and epidemiology, genomics and microbiology, host response, therapy, and prevention and control. Previous edition: c1996. DNLM: Tuberculosis--Pulmonary. |
 |
The Return of the White Plague: Global Poverty and the 'New' Tuberculosis by Matthew Gandy (Editor), Alimuddin Zumla (Editor) The dramatic increase since the 1980s in the global prevalence of tuberculosis, a disease destined as recently as thirty years ago for complete eradication, is a story of medical failure. A pandemic whose geography defies simple categorization—it ranges from schools in the UK to prisons in Russia, from refugee camps in central Africa to affluent suburbs in North America—the 'new' tuberculosis is derived from a combination of different developments such as collapsing health-care services, shifting patterns of poverty and inequality, the spread of HIV, and the emergence of virulent drug-resistant strains. This collection provides an international survey of current thought on the spread and control of tuberculosis, covering historical, social, political, and medical aspects. While... |
 |
Historic Tuberculosis Films DVD: History of Pulmonary & Mycobacterium TB & Lung Disease Films Also With: Inc. Courier Productions (Producer), Michigan State Department of Health (Producer) Table of Contents: Tuberculosis (1955)11 minutes - This is a fun little film that shows a general history and overview of the effects of tuberculosis on our society. / On the Firing Line (1936) 20 minutes - A fantastic film that has great timeless statistics as well as footage and information about the fight against tuberculosis by the National Tuberculosis Association. / You are the Switchman (1951) 12 minutes running time - A film about noticing the warning signs of cancer and taking appropriate preventative action. You Are the Switchman was a groundbreaking video because it was released two years before the link between smoking cigarettes and cancer was officially out in the open. / City of Hope (1930s) 16 minutes - The Los Angeles Tuberculosis Sanatorium produced this film in the... |
 |
Handbook of Tuberculosis by Stefan H. E. Kaufmann (Editor), Paul van Helden (Editor), Eric Rubin (Editor), Warwick J. Britton (Editor) Tuberculosis (TB), a deadly airborne disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, takes the lives of almost 2 million people each year and is considered to be the most common infectious disease in the world. However, thanks to the efforts of researchers such as the volumes’ lead editor, Dr. Stefan H. E. Kaufmann, there have been several recent advances in fighting the disease. Dr. Stefan Kaufmann, the Founding Director of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Charité at the Humboldt University, Berlin, has published more than 600 scientific articles and currently serves as President of the European Federation of Immunological Societies and Chair of the Immunology Division of the American... |
| © 2010 BrightSurf.com |