Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), Gruhakalpa Building, Nampally, Hyderabad 500001, India.
Bhagwan Mahavir Medical Research Center, 10-1-1, Mahavir Marg, A.C. Guards, Hyderabad 500004, India.
Infect Genet Evol. 2014 Mar;22:244-9. doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2013.06.023. Epub 2013 Jul 2.
Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most important diseases of humans and major public health problem worldwide. Early and accurate diagnosis of TB is necessary for the treatment, prevention, and control of TB. Therefore, it is important to identify suitable antigens that can differentiate active tuberculosis patients from BCG-vaccinated individuals. In the present study, we have used Rv0256c (PPE2) protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to screen the sera of infected patients belonging to different clinical TB presentations, and BCG-vaccinated clinically healthy individuals by enzyme immunoassay. Our results demonstrated that Rv0256c displayed stronger and specific immunoreactivity against the sera obtained from clinically active tuberculosis patients compared to PPD and ESAT-6 and could differentiate the TB-patients from the BCG-vaccinated controls. Importantly, Rv0256c was also found to detect even the extrapulmonary and smear-negative pulmonary cases which often are tedious and difficult to detect using conventional diagnostic methods. This study suggests that Rv0256c can be used as a potential marker for the serodiagnosis of tuberculosis patients.
结核病（TB）是人类最重要的疾病之一，也是全球主要的公共卫生问题。早期、准确地诊断结核病对于结核病的治疗、预防和控制至关重要。因此，寻找能够区分活动性结核病患者和卡介苗（BCG）接种者的合适抗原非常重要。在本研究中，我们使用结核分枝杆菌的 Rv0256c（PPE2）蛋白，通过酶联免疫吸附试验筛选来自不同临床结核表现的感染患者和临床健康的 BCG 接种者的血清。我们的结果表明，与 PPD 和 ESAT-6 相比，Rv0256c 对来自临床活动性结核病患者的血清显示出更强和更特异的免疫反应，并且可以区分结核患者和 BCG 接种对照者。重要的是，Rv0256c 还能够检测到甚至是肺外和痰涂片阴性的肺部病例，而这些病例通常使用常规诊断方法很难检测。本研究表明，Rv0256c 可作为结核病患者血清学诊断的潜在标志物。
