ReviewMicrobiology spectrum2017
Acid-Fast Positive and Acid-Fast Negative Mycobacterium tuberculosis: The Koch Paradox.
Review in Microbiology spectrum, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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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
58 citing papers in PubMed, 101 citations in OpenAlex.
- Whole blood mRNA expression-based targets to discriminate active tuberculosis from latent infection and other pulmonary diseases.Scientific reports · 2020Trial
- Novel RT‒qPCR-based blood signatures for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Comparison of diagnostic accuracy and sensitivity of Kinyoun and auramine-rhodamine stains in detecting mycobacteria from specimen smears.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis: a comprehensive review of pathogenesis, drug resistance, current treatment and future prospects.Archives of microbiology · 2026Review
- Development of Isoniazid-Pyrazole Hybrids as Potential Antitubercular Agents.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Diagnostic value of phenotypic testing combined with molecular biology testing for tuberculosis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The diagnostic value of Xpert detection combined with nanopore sequencing for tuberculosis in HIV/AIDS patients.Infectious medicine · 2026Article
- Granulomatous arteritis/aortitis associated withVeterinary pathology · 2026Article
- [Infectious diseases of the lower gastrointestinal tract and their differential diagnoses].Pathologie (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Role of cell-free DNA technology in assisting paraffin-embedded cytology for the pathological diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2026Article
- Detection, Isolation, and Identification of Mycobacteria That Cause Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Disease and Tuberculosis.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Human pluripotent stem cell-derived skin organoids enabled pathophysiological model of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.Nature communications · 2025Article
- A new strategy for the diagnosis of tuberculosis based on secreted antigens: evaluation of the efficacy of alveolar lavage ESAT-6 and CFP-10 tests.European journal of medical research · 2025Article
- Diagnostic accuracy of sputum smear microscopy compared with culture in patients with tuberculosis confirmed by XpertThe Journal of international medical research · 2025Article
- A viable but nonculturable state ofJournal of medical microbiology · 2025Article
- Rationally Designed InhA Inhibitors: A Comparative Anti-Tubercular Activity Study of Sulfonate Esters of Isoniazid Hydrazones and Their Structurally Flexible Benzyl Analogues.Chemical biology & drug design · 2025Article
- Liposome-Encapsulated Antibiotics for the Therapy of Mycobacterial Infections.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- CD14Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Article
- Targeted Photodynamic Therapy for Drug-Resistant Pulmonary Tuberculosis through Mycolic Acid and Cyclohexadiene-Aminophenyl Interactions.Current topics in medicinal chemistry · 2025Article
- Molecular and microbiological methods for the identification of nonreplicating Mycobacterium tuberculosis.PLoS pathogens · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Acid-fast (AF) staining, also known as Ziehl-Neelsen stain microscopic detection, developed over a century ago, is even today the most widely used diagnostic method for tuberculosis. Herein we present a short historical review of the evolution of AF staining methods and discuss Koch's paradox, in which non-AF tubercle bacilli can be detected in tuberculosis patients or in experimentally infected animals. The conversion of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from an actively growing, AF-positive form to a nonreplicating, AF-negative form during the course of infection is now well documented. The mechanisms of loss of acid-fastness are not fully understood but involve important metabolic processes, such as the accumulation of triacylglycerol-containing intracellular inclusions and changes in the composition and spatial architecture of the cell wall. Although the precise component(s) responsible for the AF staining method remains largely unknown, analysis of a series of genetically defined M. tuberculosis mutants, which are attenuated in mice, pointed to the primary role of mycolic acids and other cell wall-associated (glyco)lipids as molecular markers responsible for the AF property of mycobacteria. Further studies are now required to better describe the cell wall reorganization that occurs during dormancy and to develop new staining procedures that are not affected by such cell wall alterations and that are capable of detecting AF-negative cells.
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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.