Screening of M. tuberculosis with the help of macrophage models

M. tuberclosis is an intracellular pathogen which survives and replicate in macrophages. To combat tuberculosis, complete knowledge of bacteria and macrophage interaction is compulsory. Growth of M. tuberclosis can be done by using microphage models; this eventually helps in screening the intracellular pathogen.  The cell source for macrophages model generally includes human peripheral blood, lungs, cell lines and bone marrow. This cell source is further utilised for screening by Chinese and Western anti-TB drugs, to study the role of SigB and SigFetc.. for figuring out the immune mechanism and pathogenesis.

The online English database PubMed, Chinese databases CNKI, SinoMed, and Wanfang were searched up to December 2010 for published articles. Two groups of terms were used for the information retrieval, one of which includes macrophage model, macrophages model, macrophage models, macrophages models, macrophage, and macrophages; the othergroup of terms comprises mycobacterium tuberculosis. For PubMed, the two groups of English terms were applied, while Chinese terms were used.Inclusion criteria were defined for this review, by which articles on cell sources, screening of anti-tuberculosis drugs, pathogenic mechanisms of tuberculosis or immunomechanism of tuberculosis of macrophage models are collected. Exclusion criteria were also developed, by which articles about other aspects of macrophage models, such as vaccination of tuberculosis, were excluded.  Read more...........