Cystic fibrosis carriership and TB: hints toward an evolutionary selective advantage based on data from the Brazilian territory
Abstract
Background
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.
Methods
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.
Results
A significant, negative
correlation between CF carriership rate and TB incidence,
independent of any of the seven confounders was found.
Conclusion
We provide exploratory
support for the hypothesis that carrying a single CFTR mutation
arms against Mtb infections.
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Source:
BMC Infectious Diseases
