An interdisciplinary team of Dutch researchers has discovered that wasting syndrome, a severe byproduct of tuberculosis, is the same for all humans and animals studied. The discovery offers new opportunities to investigate the still insufficiently understood condition. The scientists also developed a promising method for diagnosing and possibly even predicting tuberculosis.

The cellular recycling system in zebrafish is capable of eating harmful bacteria and thus resist infections such as tuberculosis and salmonellosis. That is written by Leiden biologists from the group of Annemarie Meijer. Stimulating this form of defence could be used in new treatment methods against infectious diseases. The researchers publish their results in two leading journals, Autophagy and PLOS Pathogens.