What is it about?
It has generally been assumed that mycobacteria killing depends on the participation of immune cells, but we have shown that also cell-free plasma exhibits a strong mycobactericidal activity.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Serum is the usual supplement used for in vitro infection of human cells with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We show that, unlike plasma, it has little mycobactericidal activity, which may explain why it has been traditionally so difficult to obtain killing activity in vitro.
Perspectives
The mycobactericidal activity of plasma has raised skepticism, but we have corroborated our results time and again. The activity is so strong that we expect that it may aid the search of immunomodulators that target the mycobacteria.
Dr Octavio M Rivero-Lezcano
Complejo Asistencial Universitario de León
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: RETRACTED: Plasma contributes to the antimicrobial activity of whole blood against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Innate Immunity, August 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1753425916663311.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
