PLOS Global Public Health (Jan 2023)

Plasma CXCL8 and MCP-1 as surrogate plasma biomarkers of latent tuberculosis infection among household contacts-A cross-sectional study.

  • Sivaprakasam T Selvavinayagam,
  • Bijulal Aswathy,
  • Yean K Yong,
  • Asha Frederick,
  • Lakshmi Murali,
  • Vasudevan Kalaivani,
  • Sree J Karishma,
  • Manivannan Rajeshkumar,
  • Adukkadukkam Anusree,
  • Meganathan Kannan,
  • Natarajan Gopalan,
  • Ramachandran Vignesh,
  • Amudhan Murugesan,
  • Hong Yien Tan,
  • Ying Zhang,
  • Samudi Chandramathi,
  • Munusamy Ponnan Sivasankaran,
  • Pachamuthu Balakrishnan,
  • Sakthivel Govindaraj,
  • Siddappa N Byrareddy,
  • Vijayakumar Velu,
  • Marie Larsson,
  • Esaki M Shankar,
  • Sivadoss Raju

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002327
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 3, no. 11
p. e0002327

Abstract

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Early detection of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is critical to TB elimination in the current WHO vision of End Tuberculosis Strategy. The study investigates whether detecting plasma cytokines could aid in diagnosing LTBI across household contacts (HHCs) positive for IGRA, HHCs negative for IGRA, and healthy controls. The plasma cytokines were measured using a commercial Bio-Plex Pro Human Cytokine 17-plex assay. Increased plasma CXCL8 and decreased MCP-1, TNF-α, and IFN-γ were associated with LTBI. Regression analysis showed that a combination of CXCL8 and MCP-1 increased the risk of LTBI among HHCs to 14-fold. Our study suggests that CXCL-8 and MCP-1 could serve as the surrogate biomarkers of LTBI, particularly in resource-limited settings. Further laboratory investigations are warranted before extrapolating CXCL8 and MCP-1 for their usefulness as surrogate biomarkers of LTBI in resource-limited settings.