Frontiers in Immunology (Jul 2022)

Tuberculosis Phenotypic and Genotypic Drug Susceptibility Testing and Immunodiagnostics: A Review

  • Kizil A. Yusoof,
  • Juan Ignacio García,
  • Alyssa Schami,
  • Alyssa Schami,
  • Andreu Garcia-Vilanova,
  • Holden V. Kelley,
  • Shu-Hua Wang,
  • Adrian Rendon,
  • Blanca I. Restrepo,
  • Blanca I. Restrepo,
  • Marcel Yotebieng,
  • Jordi B. Torrelles,
  • Jordi B. Torrelles

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.870768
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13

Abstract

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Tuberculosis (TB), considered an ancient disease, is still killing one person every 21 seconds. Diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) still has many challenges, especially in low and middle-income countries with high burden disease rates. Over the last two decades, the amount of drug-resistant (DR)-TB cases has been increasing, from mono-resistant (mainly for isoniazid or rifampicin resistance) to extremely drug resistant TB. DR-TB is problematic to diagnose and treat, and thus, needs more resources to manage it. Together with+ TB clinical symptoms, phenotypic and genotypic diagnosis of TB includes a series of tests that can be used on different specimens to determine if a person has TB, as well as if the M.tb strain+ causing the disease is drug susceptible or resistant. Here, we review and discuss advantages and disadvantages of phenotypic vs. genotypic drug susceptibility testing for DR-TB, advances in TB immunodiagnostics, and propose a call to improve deployable and low-cost TB diagnostic tests to control the DR-TB burden, especially in light of the increase of the global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance, and the potentially long term impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disruption on TB programs.

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