Biologic Basis Of Increased Susceptibility Of Smokers To Pulmonary Infection With Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

Identify a biologic (molecular) basis for the increased susceptibility of cigarette smokers to pulmonary TB (Mtb) by testing the hypothesis that smoking reprograms AM polarization towards a distinct phenotype associated with impaired host defense function against Mtb and that normalization of that phenotype via therapeutic modulation of the Alveolar Macrophage (AM) polarization or smoking cessation can restore the anti-Mtb host defense function of AM.

Samples from Non-Smokers with TB, Smokers with TB and Smokers with COPD and TB will be collected in Qatar under JIRB 14-00055. All subjects will be undergoing a clinical bronchoscopy as part of their disease evaluation and will be asked to give additional samples for research. All "in vivo" processing of specimens from subjects with TB will be performed in Qatar. Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection (Mtb) continues to have a detrimental impact of public health worldwide. Based on the epidemiological evidence linking smoking, COPD and Mtb, and our preliminary data we hypothesize that smoking reprograms Alveolar Macrophages (AM) polarization towards a distinct phenotype associated with impaired host defense function against Myobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and that normalization of that phenotype via therapeutic modulation of the Alveolar Macrophages (AM) polarization or smoking cessation can restore the anti-Mtb host defense function of AM.