Go to JCI Insight
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Alerts
  • Advertising/recruitment
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • By specialty
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Gastroenterology
    • Immunology
    • Metabolism
    • Nephrology
    • Neuroscience
    • Oncology
    • Pulmonology
    • Vascular biology
    • All ...
  • Videos
    • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
    • Author's Takes
  • Reviews
    • View all reviews ...
    • 100th Anniversary of Insulin's Discovery (Jan 2021)
    • Hypoxia-inducible factors in disease pathophysiology and therapeutics (Oct 2020)
    • Latency in Infectious Disease (Jul 2020)
    • Immunotherapy in Hematological Cancers (Apr 2020)
    • Big Data's Future in Medicine (Feb 2020)
    • Mechanisms Underlying the Metabolic Syndrome (Oct 2019)
    • Reparative Immunology (Jul 2019)
    • View all review series ...
  • Viewpoint
  • Collections
    • Recently published
    • In-Press Preview
    • Commentaries
    • Concise Communication
    • Editorials
    • Viewpoint
    • Top read articles
  • Clinical Medicine
  • JCI This Month
    • Current issue
    • Past issues

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Specialties
  • Reviews
  • Review series
  • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
  • Author's Takes
  • Recently published
  • In-Press Preview
  • Commentaries
  • Concise Communication
  • Editorials
  • Viewpoint
  • Top read articles
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Alerts
  • Advertising/recruitment
  • Subscribe
  • Contact

Review 10.1172/JCI136222

The knowns and unknowns of latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection

W. Henry Boom,1,2,3 Ulrich E. Schaible,4,5 and Jacqueline M. Achkar6,7

1Department of Medicine,

2Department of Pathology, and

3Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

4Division of Cellular Microbiology, Research Center Borstel–Leibniz Lung Center, Borstel, Germany.

5German Center for Infection Research, partner site Hamburg-Lübeck-Borstel-Riems, Germany.

6Department of Medicine and

7Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA.

Address correspondence to: Jacqueline M. Achkar, Departments of Medicine and of Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Block Building, Room 115, Bronx, New York 10461, USA. Phone: 718.430.8763; Email: jacqueline.achkar@einsteinmed.org.

Find articles by Boom, W. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

1Department of Medicine,

2Department of Pathology, and

3Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

4Division of Cellular Microbiology, Research Center Borstel–Leibniz Lung Center, Borstel, Germany.

5German Center for Infection Research, partner site Hamburg-Lübeck-Borstel-Riems, Germany.

6Department of Medicine and

7Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA.

Address correspondence to: Jacqueline M. Achkar, Departments of Medicine and of Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Block Building, Room 115, Bronx, New York 10461, USA. Phone: 718.430.8763; Email: jacqueline.achkar@einsteinmed.org.

Find articles by Schaible, U. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

1Department of Medicine,

2Department of Pathology, and

3Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

4Division of Cellular Microbiology, Research Center Borstel–Leibniz Lung Center, Borstel, Germany.

5German Center for Infection Research, partner site Hamburg-Lübeck-Borstel-Riems, Germany.

6Department of Medicine and

7Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA.

Address correspondence to: Jacqueline M. Achkar, Departments of Medicine and of Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Block Building, Room 115, Bronx, New York 10461, USA. Phone: 718.430.8763; Email: jacqueline.achkar@einsteinmed.org.

Find articles by Achkar, J. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar |

Published February 1, 2021 - More info

Published in Volume 131, Issue 3 on February 1, 2021
J Clin Invest. 2021;131(3):e136222. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI136222.
© 2021 American Society for Clinical Investigation
Published February 1, 2021 - Version history
View PDF

Humans have been infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) for thousands of years. While tuberculosis (TB), one of the deadliest infectious diseases, is caused by uncontrolled Mtb infection, over 90% of presumed infected individuals remain asymptomatic and contain Mtb in a latent TB infection (LTBI) without ever developing disease, and some may clear the infection. A small number of heavily Mtb-exposed individuals appear to resist developing traditional LTBI. Because Mtb has mechanisms for intracellular survival and immune evasion, successful control involves all of the arms of the immune system. Here, we focus on immune responses to Mtb in humans and nonhuman primates and discuss new concepts and outline major knowledge gaps in our understanding of LTBI, ranging from the earliest events of exposure and infection to success or failure of Mtb control.

Preview pages

Reset
Next Page 0 Back

Continue reading with a subscription.

A subscription is required for you to read this article in full. If you are a subscriber, you may sign in to continue reading.

Already subscribed?

Click here to sign into your account.

Don't have a subscription?

Please select one of the subscription options, which includes a low-cost option just for this article.

At an institution or library?

If you are at an institution or library and believe you should have access, please check with your librarian or administrator (more information).

Problems?

Please try these troubleshooting tips.

  • Purchase this article
  • $10
  • Purchasing this article will give you full access for the calendar year.
  • Purchase article
  • Purchase Site Pass
  • $25
  • This will give you access to every article on the site for 24 hours.
  • Order site pass
  • Online subscription
  • $95
  • Individual online subscriptions give you full online access for the calendar year.
  • Individual online subscriptions ordered from September 1st on will receive access for the remainder of current year as well as for the full following year subscription term.
  • Order Online
  • JCI This Month subscription
  • $135
  • JCI This Month is a 16- to 20-page overview of the articles published each month
  • Subscribing to JCI This Month also gives subscribers full online access for the calendar year.
  • *Price outside U.S. and Canada: $195.
  • JCI This Month + Online
Advertisement
Follow JCI:
Copyright © 2021 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)

Sign up for email alerts