Detection of in vitro interferon‐γ and serum tumour necrosis factor‐α in multidrug‐resistant tuberculosis patients

• Published in: Clinical and experimental immunology 2005-09, Vol.141 (3), p.541-548
• Main Authors: Fortes, A., Pereira, K., Antas, P. R. Z., Franken, C. L. M. C., Dalcolmo, M., Ribeiro‐Carvalho, M. M., Cunha, K. S., Geluk, A., Kritski, A., Kolk, A., Klatser, P., Sarno, E. N., Ottenhoff, T. H. M., Sampaio, E. P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Antigens, Bacterial - immunology; Antitubercular Agents - therapeutic use; Bacterial Proteins; Case-Control Studies; Cells, Cultured; Clinical Studies; ESAT‐6; Female; Humans; IFN‐γ; Interferon-gamma - analysis; Leukocytes, Mononuclear - immunology; Male; MDR‐TB; Middle Aged; Statistics, Nonparametric; TNF‐α; tuberculosis; Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant - blood; Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant - drug therapy; Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant - immunology; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha - analysis
• ISSN: 0009-9104; 1365-2249
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2249.2005.02872.x

Summary Multidrug‐resistant tuberculosis (MDR‐TB) is known as having a poor prognosis with a weak response to therapy and very high death rates. The aim of this work was to assess the immune response to the RD1‐encoded antigen ESAT‐6 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in MDR‐TB patients and compare to non‐resistant (NR) TB patients and healthy controls (HC). Evaluation of interferon (IFN)‐γ production showed that, although 55% of the MDR patients were responsive to ESAT‐6, they produced lower IFN‐γ levels (553 ± 11 pg/ml) when compared to NR‐TB (1179 ± 163 pg/ml; P