McGill Researchers Show Immune System Linked to Leprosy Susceptibility

(Modern Medicine) Researchers at McGill University performed a genome-wide association study linking innate immunity to leprosy infections. An attractive aspect of the study "is the apparently narrow focus of the genetic control, which highlights early antigen sensing and signaling in the pathogenesis of both leprosy and Crohn's disease," writes Erwin Schurr, Ph.D., and Philippe Gros, Ph.D in an accompanying editorial published Dec. 16 in the New England Journal of Medicine. "It is tempting to speculate that these common genetic signatures support, albeit indirectly, the proposal that a proportion of Crohn's disease cases may have a mycobacterial cause."