What could cancer teach us about tuberculosis? That’s a question Meenal Datta has been chasing since she was a graduate student.

In part because of its resistance to many antibiotics, tuberculosis kills approximately 1.7 million people worldwide each year. But new research from the University of Notre Dame suggests that structures released by the infected cells may be used in tandem with antibiotics to boost the body’s immune system, helping fight off the disease.

In a new study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, scientists at the University of Notre Dame have discovered that the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) releases RNA into infected cells. This RNA stimulates the production of a compound known as interferon beta that appears to support the growth of the pathogen.

Each year the World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes World Health Day with the goal of spreading awareness for global health issues. The WHO names Tuberculosis (TB) as one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide and over 95 percent of those deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. To improve the global health community’s understanding of TB and provide information that could help treat it, Notre Dame researchers have developed a new strain of the bacteria along with a new method to better study this deadly disease.

Researchers Patricia A. Champion and Matthew Champion from the University of Notre Dame’s Eck Institute for Global Health have developed a method to directly detect bacterial protein secretion, which could provide new insights into a variety of diseases including tuberculosis.