White blood cell responses are widespread in the pathogen that causes tuberculosis in humans.

What is it about?

A type of white blood cells known as CD8 T cells play an important role in the fight against tuberculosis (TB). Our work has shown that responses from these type of cells are scattered in the organism that causes tuberculosis. Our aim was to search for cells of the CD8 type that are capable of fighting aggressively against TB. We were able to carry out this work by following two main procedures. Firstly, we used a computer to run a precise list of operations and identified a number of potential proteins that are capable of responding favorably against the pathogen. Next, we selected some of these proteins and used them to screen blood cells obtained from healthy humans who have been previously vaccinated against tuberculosis. We found that there was a diverse response profile among the individuals, suggesting that the responses to the proteins used were not all the same.

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Why is it important?

The identified proteins may be used in the design of certain vaccines, and can also be used as monitoring tools during certain vaccine trials. The work shows that there are many responses to TB by CD8 T cells and these are scattered in the overall TB molecule.