T-cell biomarkers for diagnosis of tuberculosis: candidate evaluation by a simple whole blood assay for clinical translation. Issue 3 (22nd March 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Musvosvi, Munyaradzi; Duffy, Darragh; Filander, Elizabeth; Africa, Hadn; Mabwe, Simbarashe; Jaxa, Lungisa; Bilek, Nicole; Llibre, Alba; Rouilly, Vincent; Hatherill, Mark; Albert, Matthew; Scriba, Thomas J.; Nemes, Elisa
• Is Part Of: European respiratory journal. Volume 51:Issue 3(2018)
• Publication Date: 2018-03-22
• Subjects: Respiratory organs -- Diseases -- Periodicals; Respiration -- Periodicals; 616.2
• DOI: 10.1183/13993003.00153-2018
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0903-1936

Abstract

Diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) disease, the most common cause of death due to infection globally [1], depends on direct detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, typically from a sputum specimen. However, up to half of individuals with microbiologically proven TB do not have a prolonged productive cough [2], required to produce sputum. To address this challenge, investigators have identified candidate blood-based host biomarkers for TB diagnosis, based on M. tuberculosis -specific T-cell memory phenotypes, activation or cytokine expression profiles [3–9]. Such biomarkers have also shown potential as surrogates to monitor TB treatment response [3, 10]. Here, we aimed to: 1) compare the diagnostic performance of several blood-based T-cell biomarkers in TB patients and controls; 2) determine if combinations of these biomarkers improve diagnostic performance; 3) identify the minimal number of flow cytometry parameters required to distinguish active TB patients from persons with latent M. tuberculosis infection (LTBI); and 4) translate measurement of these biomarkers from peripheral blood mononuclear cells to whole blood to enable a simplified application in field studies. We compared candidate T-cell-based TB biomarkers and identified HLA-DR on Mtb-specific T-cells as a priority marker http://ow.ly/TyHa30iwVbL