Variants associated with tuberculosis
Nature Genetics
August 9, 2010
Genetic variants associated with tuberculosis susceptibility are reported this week in Nature Genetics. This represents one of the few genome-wide association studies in African populations to convincingly identify genetic variants associated with susceptibility to an infectious disease.
Tuberculosis has an estimated global annual incidence of 9 million, and 1.3 million deaths are attributed to active disease. The highest burden of disease is found in developing countries of Africa and South-East Asia.
Adrian Hill and colleagues report a genome-wide association for pulmonary tuberculosis, in a combined group of 11,425 individuals from Ghana and The Gambia. They identify a single genomic region associated with progression to disease.
doi: 10.1038/ng.639
Research highlights
-
Oct 12
Biomedical engineering: Exoskeleton improves walking in patients with above-knee amputationNature Medicine
-
Oct 12
Archaeology: Earliest known human use of tobacco revealedNature Human Behaviour
-
Oct 12
Sociology: Older adults worldwide exhibit increased, but more nationally focused, prosocial behaviorNature Aging
-
Oct 7
Neuroscience: Mapping the mammalian motor cortexNature
-
Oct 7
Drug discovery: A promising candidate for the treatment of dengueNature
-
Sep 29
Genetics: Epigenetic signature specific to identical twins identifiedNature Communications
