Two strains of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis have only minor genetic differences but attack the lungs in completely different ways, researchers report.
The findings could help break the cycle of rapid transmission of TB.
The disease mechanisms uncovered in the study could also provide answers about why treatments work in some patients but not others.
“These findings implicate strain differences as having an important effect on the response of lung alveolar macrophages and how tuberculosis manifests itself in the body and how it is transmitted,” says author Padmini Salgame, associate director of the Public Health Research Institute at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. “We also believe it will inform anyone hoping to devise more effective treatments.”…