Chemokine drives tuberculosis

High levels of the chemokine monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) give tuberculosis (TB) the upper hand, according to a population study on page 1649. Flores-Villanueva and colleagues show that individuals whose cells are genetically programmed to produce copious amounts of MCP-1 are more likely to develop active disease when infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Infections with M. tuberculosis, the causative agent of TB, are on the rise; an estimated eight million new infections and two million TB-induced deaths occur annually. But not all people who are exposed to M. tuberculosis become ill—a phenomenon largely attributed to genetic differences that make some individuals more susceptible to disease than others. Indeed, a recent study identified a region on chromosome 17 that was linked to increased susceptibility to active tuberculosis, although the...