MRC study finds gene signature among tuberculosis patients

The Medical Research Council (MRC) has published new research which highlights a genetic signature that may be linked to tuberculosis susceptibility.

Studies conducted in London and Cape Town have uncovered a pattern of genes in the blood of patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis, which reflects the extent of the disease's progression in the lungs.

This genetic signature was also found in around ten per cent of patients carrying the infection in its latent form.

It is hoped that further study of this signature could lead to the development of new genetic tests to determine which patients with latent tuberculosis are most likely to develop an active form of the disease.

Dr Anne O'Garra, head of immunoregulation at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research, said: "Although people have been studying tuberculosis for more than a century, there is still a desperate need for better prognostic and diagnostic tests."

Earlier this month, the MRC published research into a potential new method of easily diagnosing autism in adults via a 15-minute brain scan.