Joseph Nancy Hilda, Natarajan Alangudi Palaniappan, Natarajan Saravanan, Ponnuraja Chinnaiyan, A Madeshwaran, I Gunaparvathy, P Hemalatha, S Rajeshwari, Jayabal Lavanya, Ayyamperumal Mahilmaran, P M Ramesh, Hanna Luke Elizabeth
Department of Virology & Biotechnology, Indian Council of Medical Research- National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, Chennai, India.
Department of Biochemistry, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)- National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, Chennai, India.
Front Immunol. 2025 Jul 31;16:1586789. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1586789. eCollection 2025.
Tuberculosis (TB) is considered a risk factor for severe COVID-19 disease and the quality of life of patients co-infected with COVID-19 and TB is significantly impacted due to the nature of these diseases. It is still unknown how our immune system will respond to both these pathogens in sequel. As it has been discovered that Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) result in caseating granulomas in TB and pathology in COVID-19, we conducted this work to determine the amounts of NET molecules in the bloodstream and to comprehend their function during TB and subsequent SARS-CoV-2 infection.
We recruited 43 healthy volunteers, 40 newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis patients who were negative for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody and 18 newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis patients who were positive for SARS-CoV-2 IgG.
Although Citrullinated Histone H3 and myeloperoxidase, did not show any difference in their levels, the NET marker elastase had significantly reduced circulatory levels in the tuberculosis group with SARS-CoV IgG positivity compared to tuberculosis group without SARS-CoV-2 IgG positivity.
The substantial decrease in elastase levels observed in the diabetic cohort of TB patients with SARS-CoV-2 IgG positivity is intriguing and needs large cohort studies in the future to understand the influence of diabetes in TB patients exposed to SARS-CoV-2.
结核病（TB）被认为是重症 COVID-19 疾病的一个风险因素，由于这些疾病的特性，同时感染 COVID-19 和 TB 的患者的生活质量受到显著影响。我们的免疫系统随后会如何对这两种病原体作出反应仍不清楚。鉴于已发现中性粒细胞胞外陷阱（NETs）会导致结核病中的干酪样肉芽肿以及 COVID-19 中的病理变化，我们开展了这项研究，以确定血液中 NET 分子的数量，并了解它们在结核病及随后的 SARS-CoV-2 感染过程中的作用。
我们招募了 43 名健康志愿者、40 名新诊断的 SARS-CoV-2 IgG 抗体阴性的肺结核患者以及 18 名新诊断的 SARS-CoV-2 IgG 阳性的肺结核患者。
尽管瓜氨酸化组蛋白 H3 和髓过氧化物酶的水平没有显示出任何差异，但与无 SARS-CoV-2 IgG 阳性的结核病组相比，SARS-CoV IgG 阳性的结核病组中 NET 标志物弹性蛋白酶的循环水平显著降低。
在 SARS-CoV-2 IgG 阳性的结核病患者糖尿病队列中观察到的弹性蛋白酶水平大幅下降很有趣，未来需要进行大规模队列研究，以了解糖尿病对接触 SARS-CoV-2 的结核病患者的影响。
