Hutchinson Paul, Barkham Timothy M S, Tang Wenying, Kemeny David M, Chee Cynthia Bin-Eng, Wang Yee T
Immunology Programme, Life Sciences Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore.
Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2015 Feb;22(2):200-12. doi: 10.1128/CVI.00607-14. Epub 2014 Dec 17.
The tuberculin skin test (TST) and interferon gamma (IFN-γ) release assays (IGRAs) are used as adjunctive tests for the evaluation of suspected cases of active tuberculosis (TB). However, a positive test does not differentiate latent from active TB. We investigated whether flow cytometric measurement of novel combinations of intracellular cytokines and surface makers on CD4 T cells could differentiate between active and latent TB after stimulation with Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific proteins. Blood samples from 60 patients referred to the Singapore Tuberculosis Control Unit for evaluation for active TB or as TB contacts were stimulated with purified protein derivative (PPD), ESAT-6 and CFP-10, or heparin-binding hemagglutinin (HBHA). The CD4 T cell cytokine response (IFN-γ, interleukin-2 [IL-2], interleukin-17A [IL-17A], interleukin-22 [IL-22], granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor [GM-CSF], and tumor necrosis factor alpha [TNF-α]) and surface marker expression (CD27, CXCR3, and CD154) were then measured. We found that the proportion of PPD-specific CD4 T cells, defined as CD154(+) TNF-α(+) cells that were negative for CD27 and positive for GM-CSF, gave the strongest discrimination between subjects with latent and those with active TB (area under the receiver operator characteristic [ROC] curve of 0.9277; P < 0.0001). Also, the proportions and absolute numbers of HBHA-specific CD4 T cells were significantly higher in those with latent TB infection, particularly CD154(+) TNF-α(+) IFN-γ(+) IL-2(+) and CD154(+) TNF-α(+) CXCR3(+). Finally, we found that the ratio of ESAT-6- and CFP-10-responding to HBHA-responding CD4 T cells was significantly different between the two study populations. In conclusion, we found novel markers of M. tuberculosis-specific CD4 cells which differentiate between active and latent TB.
结核菌素皮肤试验(TST)和干扰素γ(IFN-γ)释放试验(IGRAs)被用作评估疑似活动性结核病(TB)病例的辅助检查。然而,阳性检测结果无法区分潜伏性结核和活动性结核。我们研究了在结核分枝杆菌特异性蛋白刺激后,通过流式细胞术检测CD4 T细胞内细胞因子和表面标志物的新组合,是否能够区分活动性结核和潜伏性结核。来自60名转诊至新加坡结核病控制单位以评估活动性结核或作为结核接触者的患者的血样,用纯化蛋白衍生物(PPD)、早期分泌性抗原靶6(ESAT-6)和培养滤液蛋白10(CFP-10)或肝素结合血凝素(HBHA)进行刺激。然后检测CD4 T细胞细胞因子反应(IFN-γ、白细胞介素-2 [IL-2]、白细胞介素-17A [IL-17A]、白细胞介素-22 [IL-22]、粒细胞-巨噬细胞集落刺激因子 [GM-CSF] 和肿瘤坏死因子α [TNF-α])以及表面标志物表达(CD27、CXCR3和CD154)。我们发现,PPD特异性CD4 T细胞的比例,定义为CD154(+) TNF-α(+)且CD27阴性、GM-CSF阳性的细胞,在区分潜伏性结核和活动性结核患者方面具有最强的辨别力(受试者工作特征 [ROC] 曲线下面积为0.9277;P < 0.0001)。此外,潜伏性结核感染患者中HBHA特异性CD4 T细胞的比例和绝对数量显著更高,尤其是CD154(+) TNF-α(+) IFN-γ(+) IL-2(+)和CD154(+) TNF-α(+) CXCR3(+)。最后,我们发现两个研究人群中ESAT-6和CFP-10反应性CD4 T细胞与HBHA反应性CD4 T细胞的比例存在显著差异。总之,我们发现了区分活动性结核和潜伏性结核的结核分枝杆菌特异性CD4细胞新标志物。