Toidi Adekambi, Chris C. Ibegbu, Stephanie Cagle, Susan M. Ray, Jyothi Rengarajan
Abstract
Antigen-specific CD4+ T cell responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection are important for host defense against tuberculosis (TB). However, Mtb-specific IFN-γ-producing T cells do not distinguish active tuberculosis (ATB) patients from individuals with asymptomatic latent Mtb infection (LTBI). We reasoned that the immune phenotype of Mtb-specific IFN-γ+CD4+ T cells could provide an indirect gauge of Mtb antigen load within individuals. We sought to identify immune markers in Mtb-specific IFN-γ+CD4+ T cells and hypothesized that expression of caspase-3 Mtb-specific CD4+ T cells would be associated with ATB. Using polychromatic flow cytometry, we evaluated the expression of caspase-3 in Mtb-specific CD4+ T cells from LTBI and ATB as well as from ATB patients undergoing anti-TB treatment. We found significantly higher frequencies of Mtb-specific caspase-3+IFN-γ+CD4+ T cells in ATB compared to LTBI. Caspase-3+IFN-γ+CD4+ T cells were also more activated compared to their caspase-3-negative counterparts. Furthermore, the frequencies of caspase-3+IFN-γ+CD4+ T cells decreased in response to anti-TB treatment. Our studies suggest that the frequencies of caspase-3-expressing antigen-specific CD4+ T cells may reflect mycobacterial burden in vivo and may be useful for distinguishing Mtb infection status along with other host biomarkers.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
1
3%
Other
3
9%
Unknown
14
42%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 July 2018.
All research outputs
#20,663,600
of 25,385,509 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in immunology
#24,759
of 31,537 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#266,755
of 342,237 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in immunology
#599
of 719 outputs
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