Shaw Jane A, Petersen Caleb, Hiemstra Andriette, Meiring Maynard, Eribo Osagie A, Otum Christian, van Rensburg Ilana, Shabangu Ayanda, Smith Bronwyn, Noor Firdows, Walzl Gerhard, Urdahl Kevin B, Lewinsohn Dave, Malherbe Stephanus T, du Plessis Nelita
Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa.
University of Washington School of Medicine, Washington, Seattle, USA.
Gates Open Res. 2025 Sep 9;9:69. doi: 10.12688/gatesopenres.16362.1. eCollection 2025.
There is a concern that SARS-CoV-2 infection may drive poor outcomes after Mtb exposure and infection. We performed an Mtb killing assay using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from three groups: healthy household contacts of people with active TB with and without serologic evidence of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection (COV+HHC and COV-HHC), and participants with active TB and previous SARS-CoV-2 (COV+TB+).
Twenty participants per group from Cape Town, South Africa were classified according to SARS-CoV-2 anti-S and anti-N antibody tests. We infected PBMC from each participant at a MOI of 0.001 with Mtb strain H37Rv in a 4-day growth inhibition assay. Mycobacteria were quantified through inoculation into Bactec Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) liquid culture. PBMC from a subset of participants were infected in the presence of autologous time-matched serum and Mtb-uninfected control PBMCs were included.
There was no difference in the time to detection of Mtb or the normalised Mtb growth ratio (log10CFUsample - log10CFUcontrol) between groups in the standard protocol, or when infected cells from the COV+HHC and COV+TB+ (n=10 each) groups were cultured with autologous time-matched serum. The group with active TB demonstrated the best Mtb growth control. Extracellular Mtb measured by culturing the supernatants of the infected cell cultures also did not show any difference between groups. Five (14.3%) uninfected controls were culture positive.
Our results show that previous SARS-CoV-2 does not affect the Mtb killing ability of circulating mononuclear immune cells Previous SARS-CoV-2 is unlikely to affect the outcome of Mtb infection through this mechanism.
有人担心，严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）感染可能会导致结核分枝杆菌（Mtb）暴露和感染后出现不良后果。我们使用来自三组人群的外周血单个核细胞（PBMC）进行了一项Mtb杀伤试验：有和没有既往SARS-CoV-2感染血清学证据的活动性肺结核患者的健康家庭接触者（COV+HHC和COV-HHC），以及既往感染过SARS-CoV-2的活动性肺结核患者（COV+TB+）。
根据SARS-CoV-2抗S和抗N抗体检测，对来自南非开普敦的每组20名参与者进行分类。在一项为期4天的生长抑制试验中，我们以感染复数（MOI）为0.001用Mtb菌株H37Rv感染每个参与者的PBMC。通过接种到Bactec分枝杆菌生长指示管（MGIT）液体培养物中来定量分枝杆菌。来自一部分参与者的PBMC在自体时间匹配血清存在的情况下进行感染，并纳入未感染Mtb的对照PBMC。
在标准方案中，各组之间在检测到Mtb的时间或标准化的Mtb生长率（log10CFU样本 - log10CFU对照）方面没有差异，或者当来自COV+HHC和COV+TB+组（每组n = 10）的感染细胞与自体时间匹配血清一起培养时也没有差异。活动性肺结核组表现出最佳的Mtb生长控制。通过培养感染细胞培养物的上清液测量的细胞外Mtb在各组之间也没有显示出任何差异。5名（14.3%）未感染的对照培养呈阳性。
我们的结果表明，既往SARS-CoV-2感染不会影响循环单核免疫细胞的Mtb杀伤能力。既往SARS-CoV-2感染不太可能通过这种机制影响Mtb感染的结果。
