Researchers from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR)- Indian Institue of Chemical Biology Kolkata, and Jadavpur University formed a team and reached a result of how tuberculosis is released from the sacs granuloma formed by the macrophages around the bacteria.
Being amongst the deadliest diseases, Tuberculosis kills about nine million people every year. Surprisingly, out of the nine million people, 32% are Indians.
The disease is been studied for years with no positive results. Now Scientists have found that the TB bacteria secrete a protein called MPT6, which can be a reason behind the rupture. When there is acidity, this protein structures can change their formation and become toxic to the host cells(macrophages). Rarely people realize that they are infected with TB as it remains in a dormant state until it is infectious. Therefore the cells are killed and the dormant bacteria are released which ultimately harms the body.
The team would try to validate these findings in field strains of TB bacillus and study if they can be used to develop new curative interventions. With this discovery, scientists will be looking for the methods to neutralize the effect of MPT6 protein and research to keep the TB locked-in permanently and save millions of patients. The results will be presented in the Journal of ACS Chemical Biology.
