Potential Immunological Biomarker for Diagnosis and Prognosis of Tuberculosis

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most common infectious diseases in the world, which has led to numerous deaths. Hence, developing an efficient diagnostic method is essential to monitor and control such deadly infectious diseases. In the current study, the serum levels of four inflammatory markers (CXCL10, CXCL9, suPAR, and MMP9) and the expression NF-κB gene were evaluated as potential immunological markers for diagnosis and prognosis of tuberculosis, using ELISA and qPCR technique respectively. Thirty new TB patients and equal numbers of under treatment TB patients and control (healthy people) were conscripted in this study. The results showed significant differences in the serum level of CXCL10 among the three groups (p value 0.003) and between new and under treatment patients (P value 0.004). A significant difference in the CXCL9 level in the serum was observed between the new TB patients and the healthy group with p value 0.028 but didn’t reach the significant level between the new and under treatment patients.  The serum level of suPAR was higher in new patients (106.59pg/ml) followed by treated patients (89.66pg/ml) and lowest in healthy group (80.71pg/ml) but didn’t reach the significant level. Also, the serum level of MMP-9 did not show a significant difference between the tested groups, but it was slightly higher in new patients (21.45ng/ml) compared to the healthy group (20.70ng/ml). The amount of NF-κB gene expression was significantly higher in new patients (8.21-fold change) than in under treatment patients (2.95-fold change) in comparing with healthy people.