Open AccessRecognition of Stage-Specific Mycobacterial Antigens Differentiates between Acute and Latent Infections with Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Author(s) -
Abebech Demissie,
Eliane M. S. Leyten,
Markos Abebe,
Liya Wassie,
Abraham Aseffa,
Getahun Abate,
Helen A. Fletcher,
Patrick K. Owiafe,
Philip C. Hill,
Roger H. Brookes,
G. A. W. Rook,
Alimuddin Zumla,
Sandra M. Arend,
Michèl R. Klein,
Tom H. M. Ottenhoff,
Peter Andersen,
T. Mark Doherty
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
clinical and vaccine immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.649
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1556-6811
pISSN - 1556-679X
DOI - 10.1128/cvi.13.2.179-186.2006
Subject(s) - tuberculosis , mycobacterium tuberculosis , immunology , vaccination , immune system , antigen , tuberculin , latent tuberculosis , disease , population , medicine , immunity , virology , biology , environmental health , pathology
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is estimated to infect 80 to 100 million people annually, the majority of whom do not develop clinical tuberculosis (TB) but instead maintain the infection in a latent state. These individuals generally become positive in response to a tuberculin skin test and may develop clinical TB at a later date, particularly if their immune systems are compromised. Latently infected individuals are interesting for two reasons. First, they are an important reservoir of M. tuberculosis, which needs to be considered for TB control. Second, if detected prior to recrudescence of the disease, they represent a human population that is making a protective immune response to M. tuberculosis, which is very important for defining correlates of protective immunity. In this study, we show that while responsiveness to early secretory antigenic target 6 is a good marker for M. tuberculosis infection, a strong response to the 16-kDa Rv2031c antigen (HspX or alpha-crystallin) is largely restricted to latently infected individuals, offering the possibility of differential immunodiagnosis of, or therapeutic vaccination against, TB.