Chemokines additional to IFN- γ can be used to differentiate among Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection possibilities and provide evidence of an early clearance phenotype

Current diagnostic tests for tuberculosis (TB) remain limited in their ability to discriminate between active TB (ATB) and latent TB infection (LTBI). Early clearance (EC) of TB by individuals exposed to Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a debated phenomenon for which evidence is lacking. We measured and compared secreted chemokines in the plasma fraction from 48 ATB, 38 LTBI, 162 presumed EC and 39 healthy controls (HC) using the QuantiFERON ®-TB Gold In-Tube assay. Single chemokine markers were limited in their ability to discriminate between ATB and LTBI: IFN-γ showed 16.7% sensitivity; CCL2 showed moderate sensitivity (70.8%) and specificity (74.4%); CXCL10 showed high sensitivity (87.5%) and specificity (78.9%).

Source: Tuberculosis - April 18, 2017 Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Ditthawat Nonghanphithak, Wipa Reechaipichitkul, Wises Namwat, Vivek Naranbhai, Kiatichai Faksri Source Type: research