Evaluation of multiple cytokine levels to improve our understanding of protective immune responses against Tuberculosis and to develop novel diagnostic methods
Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Important steps towards the global control of Tuberculosis include the improvement of diagnosis, the development of effective vaccines and the identification of correlates of protection/protective immunity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This study has of three objectives:1. To validate the findings of a previous study that showed increased levels of IL-1β and decreased levels of IL-17 in children who are exposed to tuberculosis but remain uninfected compared to those who are exposed/infected and unexposed/uninfected.2. To define the protective immunological phenotype in children with negative IGRA's and TST following exposure to Mycobacterium tuberculosis.3. To evaluate a number of cytokines in both serum and saliva samples of identified tuberculosis cases and controls for their diagnostic potential and to evaluate saliva as a possible new diagnostic sample type.The study designs were as follows:Objectives1, and 2: Children with documented tuberculosis exposure and with Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection as assessed through interferon gamma release assays, children with exposure but no infection and a control group with no exposure nor infection were investigated.These participants were selected according to their exposure and infection phenotypes from a larger TB household contact study that was conducted in communities in Cape Town.Whole blood was stimulated in QuantiFeron tubes overnight and ten cytokines were measured in antigen stimulated and unstimulated supernatants by Luminex multiplex Immunoassay.Differential production of cytokines in the three groups was evaluated.Objective 3. Saliva and serum samples were collected from thirty eight adults with suspected tuberculosis who were recruited from a community health centre in Cape Town, after which the levels of thirty three host markers were evaluated in the samples using the Luminex platform.
Author: Khutso G. Phalane
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
Award: G759934536
OpenAlex ID: W17913565