Cystic Fibrosis and Tuberculosis

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anonymous

New member
The gene that causes cystic fibrosis may persist in human populations because, although two copies of it kill, having just one copy protects against tuberculosis, researchers say.

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://livingwellwithCF.blogspot.com">CF and TB--article from New Scientist.com</a>
 
A

anonymous

New member
I thought the mutation in the CF gene caused CFTR to not be expressed as mature protein, and this is what causes all the symptoms of CF. Now if someone has only one "defective" CF gene, they still get the mature CFTR, I didn't think it was actually causing any different kind of phenotype. I just can't imagine how having one would grant protection from tuberculosis.
 
M

mousesmom

New member
I saw the article this morning and thought it was quite interesting. I have to say though, my friend's child(12wcf) contracted TB when she was about 8yrs.
 
S

Scarlett81

New member
That's interesting.
Not to shift the topic, but I just saw on CNN last night that in southern Africa there is a deadly strain of TB right now. It is highly resistant to antibiotics. Of the 53 people that got it, 52 died within weeks.
Scary. I hope its true that we are protected from it, but I guess you never know. I hope there aren't any Cfers there right now!
 
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anonymous

New member
I'd heard this before - article about a cfer who was put in hospital room with someone with TB because CFers supposedly can't contract it. Liza aka ratatosk
 
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anonymous

New member
I'm confused...one the fastest growing pathogens in cf is the mycobacterium family....tb belongs to that family. Are TB and the atypical TBs different enough that one is contagious to us and the other is not?
 
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mousesmom

New member
People with CF can contract TB as I've said before. They test for it in our clinic quite regularly, particularly the african(black) patients because they're usually more exposed. I think the protection refers more to the carriers of CF (one copy) Lucky me! I also worry about the multi drug resistant TB but luckily it's only been found in Kwazulu Natal so far which is hundreds of miles away(and all the people affected were AIDs patients. I feel so sorry for them
 
F

folione

New member
I've not heard/seen studies about TB and CF - but there is one from the National Institute of Health showing CF carriers are protected from typhoid fever - it has to do with what happens in the GI tract. I've pasted the URL below.


<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/may98/niaid-06.htm
">http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/may98/niaid-06.htm
</a>

A much older article talking about the history of the CF gene also may be of interest:

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://smccd.net/accounts/hirzel/260/supplements/resources/cases/cftr3b.htm
">http://smccd.net/accounts/hirz...rces/cases/cftr3b.htm
</a>
 
E

Ender

New member
I think carriers and cf'ers are resistent to cholera too. Apparently cholera causes the CFTR protiens in the intestines to stay open, and it floods the intestines with water. Carriers and cfer's have reduced number of the protien, thus limiting it's effect.

Hahha, we are evolution gone wack...

Oh well, i like being a mutant <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif" border="0">
 
R

Rokiss12

New member
what i heard was that having CF protects you from the black plague, is this true? my mom said the reason they thought that was because CF survived the empidemic in Europe. is this true/does anyone know about this?
 
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Lilith

New member
As I said in the thread I originally started yesterday on the
subject, I believe that the Black Plague was indeed the
tuberculosis outbreak mentioned in the article.  According to
it, the CF gene developed, or mutated, in Europeans to fend off the
plague that was wiping out the continent, sort of like an
evolutionary defense mechanism.
 
C

chantelfox

New member
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote><i>Originally posted by: <b>Lilith</b></i> I believe that the
Black Plague was indeed the tuberculosis outbreak mentioned in the
article.  </end quote></div><br>
<br>
<br>
I heard somewhere about CF being protection from the Black Plague
(not sure if it's true) but I don't think that the Black Plague
(a.k.a. the Black Death or the Bubonic plague) was TB. I read that
the Bubonic Plague and TB are caused by different bacteria:<br>
<br>
<span style=" text-decoration: underline;">Bubonic Plague cased by:
 a type of <a name="gamma_proteobacteria">Gamma
Proteobacteria</a><br>
<br>
"<b>Yersinia pestis</b>. This bacillus causes <b>bubonic
plague</b>. It is usually transmitted to humans by the bite of an
infected flea. As it spreads into the lymph nodes, it causes them
to become greatly swollen, hence the name "bubonic" (bubo
- swelling of a lymph node) plague. Once in the lungs, however, the
bacteria can spread through the air causing the rapidly lethal (2 -
3 days) "pneumonic" plague. Untreated, 50 - 75 % of the
cases of bubonic plague are fatal, and the figure for the pneumonic
form reaches 100%.

The recurrent epidemics of the "black death" in Europe
from 1347 - 1352, which killed off at least one quarter of the
population, are thought by many (not all) to have been caused by
this organism.

Although no major epidemics have occurred in this century, the
threat is not entirely over. <b>Yersinia pestis</b> still
flourishes in some rodent populations in the western U. S. and
causes a few cases of human plague - primarily among small game
hunters - each year (nine in 1998).

Completion of the DNA sequence of the <a href=
"../G/GenomeSizes.html#pestis">genome</a> of Y. pestis - its
chromosome plus three <a href=
"../R/RecombinantDNA.html#plasmid">plasmids</a> - was reported on 4
October 2001"<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<span style=" text-decoration: underline;">Tuberculosis caused by :
<a name="Mycobacteria_and_Corynebacteria">Mycobacteria</a><br>
<br>
"Mycobacterium tuberculosis</b> is the agent of tuberculosis
(TB). Its genome contains 4,411,532 bp of DNA encoding some 3,959
genes."<br>
<br>
<br>
Anyhoo, this is what I read. I also read that with <a title=
"Pneumonia" href="/wiki/Pneumonia">pneumonic</a> plague infecting
<a title="Lung" href="/wiki/Lung">lungs</a> comes the possibility
of person-to-person transmission through respiratory droplets.<br>
<br>
So I guess maybe people were dying from the Bubonic Plague and TB
(if the originator's article is correct)?...<br>
That would be great if we were protected from the Black Plague and
TB
 
T

thelizardqueen

New member
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote><i>Originally posted by: <b>anonymous</b></i>
a cfer who was put in hospital room with someone with TB because CFers supposedly can't contract it.</end quote></div>

I've been in a room with someone who had TB for 2 days once, and I didn't get it. My doctors swore up and down that I couldn't and wouldn't get it. And I didn't. When I was in hospital last May, there were a few patients with TB walking around with masks, and I was within reach of a few of them. I didn't get TB that time either.
 
A

amber682

New member
I would throw a fit if they roomed my son with a TB patient! It's not entirely proven, and its only "some degree of protection".

What I don't entirely understand is how it protects cf carriers. Since its recessive, I thought a carrier's cells would be completely normal, like a non-carriers, and would behave like normal cells. I don't know if I'm making sense, I can't figure out how to word it. I can see how it would protect a person with cf, because their cells aren't functioning properly. But how does it do anything for a carrier, whose cells are functioning properly, like those of a person who is not a carrier. Although, I've heard of carriers with some degree of symptoms of cf... Hmmm...
I'm mind-boggled....
 
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