Immune Response to Mycobacterial Infection: Lessons from Flow Cytometry

Detecting and treating active and latent tuberculosis are pivotal elements for effective infection control; yet, due to their significant inherent limitations, the diagnostic means for these two stages of tuberculosis (TB) to date remain suboptimal. This paper reviews the current diagnostic tools fo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Nikoletta Rovina, Marios Panagiotou, Konstantinos Pontikis, Magdalini Kyriakopoulou, Nikolaos G. Koulouris, Antonia Koutsoukou
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2013-01-01
Series:Clinical and Developmental Immunology
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/464039
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Detecting and treating active and latent tuberculosis are pivotal elements for effective infection control; yet, due to their significant inherent limitations, the diagnostic means for these two stages of tuberculosis (TB) to date remain suboptimal. This paper reviews the current diagnostic tools for mycobacterial infection and focuses on the application of flow cytometry as a promising method for rapid and reliable diagnosis of mycobacterial infection as well as discrimination between active and latent TB: it summarizes diagnostic biomarkers distinguishing the two states of infection and also features of the distinct immune response against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) at certain stages of infection as revealed by flow cytometry to date.
ISSN:1740-2522
1740-2530