AUTHOR=Pahari Susanta , Kaur Gurpreet , Negi Shikha , Aqdas Mohammad , Das Deepjyoti K. , Bashir Hilal , Singh Sanpreet , Nagare Mukta , Khan Junaid , Agrewala Javed N. 

TITLE=Reinforcing the Functionality of Mononuclear Phagocyte System to Control Tuberculosis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2018.00193

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2018.00193

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=<p>The mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS) constitutes dendritic cells, monocytes, and macrophages. This system contributes to various functions that are essential for maintaining homeostasis, activation of innate immunity, and bridging it with the adaptive immunity. Consequently, MPS is highly important in bolstering immunity against the pathogens. However, MPS is the frontline cells in destroying <italic>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</italic> (<italic>Mtb</italic>), yet the bacterium prefers to reside in the hostile environment of macrophages. Therefore, it may be very interesting to study the struggle between <italic>Mtb</italic> and MPS to understand the outcome of the disease. In an event when MPS predominates <italic>Mtb</italic>, the host remains protected. By contrast, the situation becomes devastating when the pathogen tames and tunes the host MPS, which ultimately culminates into tuberculosis (TB). Hence, it becomes extremely crucial to reinvigorate MPS functionality to overwhelm <italic>Mtb</italic> and eliminate it. In this article, we discuss the strategies to bolster the function of MPS by exploiting the molecules associated with the innate immunity and highlight the mechanisms involved to overcome the <italic>Mtb</italic>-induced suppression of host immunity. In future, such approaches may provide an insight to develop immunotherapeutics to treat TB.</p>