ArticleInfection and immunity2001
Human natural killer cells mediate killing of intracellular Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv via granule-independent mechanisms.
Article in Infection and immunity, 2001. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 121 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Early mucosal responses following a randomised controlled human inhaled infection with attenuated Mycobacterium bovis BCG.Nature communications · 2025Trial
- Tuberculosis treatment and cytotoxic immune signatures: a longitudinal study.Journal of clinical tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases · 2026Article
- Research progress on the role and dysregulation of NK cells in anti-tuberculosis immunity.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Cytotoxic granules and effector molecules from immune cells in tuberculosis: Mechanisms of host defense and therapeutic potential.Virulence · 2025Review
- Mixed infections and heteroresistance ofEmerging microbes & infections · 2025Article
- NK cell-macrophage interactions in granulomas correlate with limited tuberculosis pathology.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- LILRB1-HLA-G axis defines a checkpoint driving natural killer cell exhaustion in tuberculosis.EMBO molecular medicine · 2024Article
- The changes and its significance of peripheral blood NK cells in patients with tuberculous meningitis.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Acute inflammation alters lung lymphocytes and potentiates innate-like behavior in young mouse lung CD8 T cells, resembling lung CD8 T cells from old mice.Journal of leukocyte biology · 2023Article
- Characterization of natural killer cells in the blood and airways of cynomolgus macaques during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.Journal of medical primatology · 2023Article
- Ferroptosis in viral infection: the unexplored possibility.Acta pharmacologica Sinica · 2022Review
- Immunosuppressive Mechanisms in Brucellosis in Light of Chronic Bacterial Diseases.Microorganisms · 2022Review
- It Takes a Village: The Multifaceted Immune Response toFrontiers in immunology · 2022Review
- BCG-induced protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection: Evidence, mechanisms, and implications for next-generation vaccines.Immunological reviews · 2021Review
- Immune lymphocytes halt replication of Francisella tularensis LVS within the cytoplasm of infected macrophages.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Distinct Human NK Cell Phenotypes and Functional Responses toFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2020Article
- The yin-yang of the interaction between myelomonocytic cells and NK cells.Scandinavian journal of immunology · 2018Review
- Natural killer cells as a therapeutic tool for infectious diseases - current status and future perspectives.Oncotarget · 2018Review
- Modulating Iron for Metabolic Support of TB Host Defense.Frontiers in immunology · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Despite the continued importance of tuberculosis as a world-wide threat to public health, little is known about the mechanisms used by human lymphocytes to contain and kill the intracellular pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We previously described an in vitro model of infection of human monocytes (MN) with virulent M. tuberculosis strain H37Rv in which the ability of peripheral blood lymphocytes to limit intracellular growth of the organism could be measured. In the current study, we determined that lymphocyte-mediated killing of intracellular M. tuberculosis occurs within the first 24 h of coculture with infected MN. Natural killer (NK) cells isolated from both purified protein derivative (PPD)-positive and PPD-negative subjects were capable of mediating this early killing of intracellular H37Rv. NK cell-mediated killing of intracellular M. tuberculosis was not associated with the production of gamma interferon. Transferred supernatants of cocultured NK cells and M. tuberculosis-infected MN could not mediate the killing of intracellular M. tuberculosis, and Transwell studies indicated that direct cell-to-cell contact was required for NK cells to mediate the killing of the organism. Killing was not dependent upon exocytosis of NK cell cytotoxic granules. NK cells induced apoptosis of mycobacterium-infected MN, but neither killing of intracellular M. tuberculosis by NK cells nor NK cell-induced apoptosis of infected MN was inhibited by blocking the interaction of FasL and Fas. Thus, human NK cells may mediate killing of intracellular M. tuberculosis via alternative apoptotic pathways.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.