Title |
Cystic fibrosis carriership and tuberculosis: hints toward an evolutionary selective advantage based on data from the Brazilian territory
|
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Published in |
BMC Infectious Diseases, May 2017
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DOI | 10.1186/s12879-017-2448-z |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Lander Bosch, Barbara Bosch, Kris De Boeck, Tim Nawrot, Isabelle Meyts, Dominique Vanneste, Cleonice Alexandre Le Bourlegat, Julio Croda, Luiz Vicente Ribeiro Ferreira da Silva Filho |
Abstract |
The reason why Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is the most common fatal genetic disease among Caucasians has been incompletely studied. We aimed at deepening the hypothesis that CF carriers have a relative protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection. Applying spatial epidemiology, we studied the link between CF carriership rate and tuberculosis (TB) incidence in Brazil. We corrected for 5 potential environmental and 2 immunological confounders in this relation: monthly income, sanitary provisions, literacy rates, racial composition and population density along with AIDS incidence rates and diabetes mellitus type 2. Smoking data were incomplete and not available for analysis. A significant, negative correlation between CF carriership rate and TB incidence, independent of any of the seven confounders was found. We provide exploratory support for the hypothesis that carrying a single CFTR mutation arms against Mtb infections. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 5 | 26% |
Czechia | 1 | 5% |
Canada | 1 | 5% |
Ireland | 1 | 5% |
United Kingdom | 1 | 5% |
Unknown | 10 | 53% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 12 | 63% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 3 | 16% |
Scientists | 3 | 16% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 5% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Unknown | 100 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Bachelor | 22 | 22% |
Student > Master | 11 | 11% |
Researcher | 8 | 8% |
Student > Ph. D. Student | 8 | 8% |
Student > Postgraduate | 6 | 6% |
Other | 9 | 9% |
Unknown | 36 | 36% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Medicine and Dentistry | 24 | 24% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 10 | 10% |
Nursing and Health Professions | 6 | 6% |
Psychology | 4 | 4% |
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 3 | 3% |
Other | 14 | 14% |
Unknown | 39 | 39% |