Leopold Tientcheu
Post-graduate Researcher MRC Unit The Gambia Tel: 002203711766 Email: ltientcheu@mrc.gm
VALIDATE Role: Network Associate
Research Keywords: TB, MTBC strains diversity, Host-Bacilli interaction, M. africanum immune response Biography: I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the MRC Unit The Gambia. My research has focus on tuberculosis (TB) for the past 10 years starting with my Master’s thesis project in 2007 at the University of Yaounde. Using molecular methods, I set out to find genetic mutations that confer drug resistance to Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) and showed that radio-isotope assays to evaluate the spread of drug resistant MTBC were as reliable and efficient as the standard, time-consuming drug susceptibility testing cultures. My subsequent doctoral studies were completed in 2013 at the LSHTM on a competitive MRC-fellowship award and were focused on “Differences between the immune responses of M. africanum (Maf)- and M. tuberculosis (Mtb)-infected patients in The Gambia following treatment” supervised by Prof Hazel Dockrell and Dr Martin Ota. My current research interest is to investigate if the differences in host responses to MTBC strains I previously described in The Gambia and published using flow cytometry, luminex and microarray technologies also exist in different African epidemiological settings. These findings would indeed have implications for TB vaccines, immunodiagnostic of TB and the use of immunomodulatory molecules to shorten the treatment of TB so called host directed therapeutics (HDTs).
Related Websites:
Tientcheu LD, Koch A, Ndengane M, Andoseh G, Kampmann B, Wilkinson RJ. Immunological consequences of strain variation within the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. Eur J Immunol. 2017 Mar;47(3):432-445. PubMed PMID: 28150302; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5363233. Tientcheu LD, Haks MC, Agbla SC, Sutherland JS, Adetifa IM, Donkor S, Quinten E, Daramy M, Antonio M, Kampmann B, Ottenhoff TH, Dockrell HM, Ota MO. Host Immune Responses Differ between M. africanum- and M. tuberculosis-Infected Patients following Standard Anti-tuberculosis Treatment. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2016 May;10(5):e0004701. PubMed PMID: 27192147; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4871581. Tientcheu LD, Maertzdorf J, Weiner J, Adetifa IM, Mollenkopf HJ, Sutherland JS, Donkor S, Kampmann B, Kaufmann SH, Dockrell HM, Ota MO. Differential transcriptomic and metabolic profiles of M. africanum- and M. tuberculosis-infected patients after, but not before, drug treatment. Genes Immun. 2015 Jul-Aug;16(5):347-55. PubMed PMID: 26043170; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4515549. Tientcheu LD, Sutherland JS, de Jong BC, Kampmann B, Jafali J, Adetifa IM, Antonio M, Dockrell HM, Ota MO. Differences in T-cell responses between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium africanum-infected patients. Eur J Immunol. 2014 May;44(5):1387-98. PubMed PMID: 24481948. |
