RESUMEN
Background: Until now, there is a need for novel tools helping the prompt diagnosis tuberculosis [TB]
Objective: This study aims to explore the extent of CD27 expression on ESAT-6 and CFP-10 antigen-specific CD4+ T cells as a recent biomarker for rapid diagnosis of active pulmonary TB in Egypt
Methodology: Based on IFN-alpha+ expression, ESAT-6 and CFP-10 antigen-specific CD4+ T cells were identified and the CD27 expression was analyzed for 60 M. tuberculosis-infected patients and 20 healthy controls
Results: The present data, in fact, displayed that patients with pulmonary TB had significantly lowered CD27 expression than healthy controls [P <0.001]. The persistent active TB patients had much lesser percentages of CD27+ T cells than culture-positive recently infected TB patients [P =0.014] and healthy controls [P< 0.001]. On evaluating the diagnostic performance of CD27 expression, it has been declared that at a cutoff value of 43.64%. CD27 had a sensitivity, specificity, positive predicted value [PPV], and negative predicted value [NPV] 86.7%, 100%, 100%, 71.4% respectively, for discrimination between patients with TB from healthy subjects
Conclusion: Thereby, proportion of CD27+ antigen-specific CD4 T cells could be used as an immunological marker for active TB