Man and mouse TB: Contradictions and solutions

As anyone who has attended tuberculosis research meeting in recent years can attest, disputes about validity of experimental animal models of tuberculosis (TB) erupt frequently, but mostly deteriorate into eloquence matches failing to produce satisfactory conclusions. Funding agencies also join the debate, since translating research into effective measures of TB control in humans is critically dependent on reliable testing of new interventions in animal models. Concerns about the validity of the most popular and accessible mouse model arouse as in some studies robust performance of a vaccine or a drug combination in mice failed to correlate with their efficacy in other species1. Here we address controversies that surround the mouse model of tuberculosis and offer a genetic perspective on how to make use of its full power for testing anti-tuberculosis interventions and dissecting pathogenesis of the disease.