TB antigens in active vs latent infection

In their effort to help design new diagnostics and vaccines for tuberculosis (TB), Cecilia Lindestam Arlehamn and her co-workers performed a proteome-wide screening of TB derived peptides in patients with active TB vs patients with latent infection, using an IFNγ and IL-17A Fluorospot assay and Mabtech IRIS. 

The comparison revealed that patients with active TB recognize different epitopes than otherwise healthy latent infected patients. With this information, the research group developed a peptide pool consisting of epitopes exclusively recognized by participants with active TB, allowing distinguishing patients with active disease from latent infections.

A peptide pool like this will be important for measuring correlates of protection in vaccine development, as well as a great possible tool for novel diagnostic assays.
 

Update 2024-01-03: Watch Cecilia present this and other exciting findings in our TB webinar.