American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine
-
Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Apr 2014
Observational StudyBacillus Calmette-Guérin and isoniazid preventive therapy protect contacts of tuberculosis patients.
Individuals living with patients with tuberculosis (TB) are at elevated risk of infection and disease, with children at greatest risk. The World Health Organization recommends isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) for HIV-positive contacts and those younger than 5 years. Despite these recommendations, household-level IPT programs are rarely implemented in high TB burden settings. Evidence is scarce about the age-specific efficacy of interventions, such as IPT and bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination for preventing TB disease among exposed contacts. ⋯ These findings support the use of IPT in older children and young-adult household contacts, in addition to children younger than 5 years.
-
Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Apr 2014
Presence of B Cells in Tertiary Lymphoid Structures is Associated with a Protective Immunity in Lung Cancer Patients.
It is now well established that immune responses can take place outside of primary and secondary lymphoid organs. We previously described the presence of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) characterized by clusters of mature dendritic cells (DCs) and T cells surrounded by B-cell follicles. We demonstrated that the density of these mature DCs was associated with favorable clinical outcome. ⋯ B-cell density represents a new prognostic biomarker for NSCLC patient survival, and makes the link between TLS and a protective B cell-mediated immunity.
-
Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Apr 2014
Conditions Associated with the Cystic Fibrosis Defect Promote Chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infection.
Progress has been made in understanding how the cystic fibrosis (CF) basic defect produces lung infection susceptibility. However, it remains unclear why CF exclusively leads to chronic infections that are noninvasive and highly resistant to eradication. Although biofilm formation has been suggested as a mechanism, recent work raises questions about the role of biofilms in CF. ⋯ Our findings suggest that conditions associated with several CF pathogenesis hypotheses could cause the noninvasive and resistant infection phenotype, independently of the bacterial functions needed for biofilm formation.