Resposta imune humoral ao antígeno rGroES do mycobacterium tuberculosis em pacientes com tuberculose e seus contatos domiciliares / Humoral immune response to mycobacterium tuberculosis rGroES antigen in patients with tuberculosis and their household contacts

RESUMO

A tuberculose (TB) continua sendo um dos mais urgentes problemas de saúde pública do mundo, com 8 a 10 milhões de novos casos e 2 a 3 milhões de mortes a cada ano. Cerca de 50 milhõesde pessoas estão infectadas com o Mycobacterium tuberculosis. A fim de desenvolver testes para imunodiagnóstico da TB, vários antígenos têm sido testados na resposta imune humoral de pacientes com TB ativa. O teste imunoenzimático de ELISA realizado com amostras de plasma de 45 pacientes com tuberculose pulmonar e 172 contatos (96 prova tuberculínica negativa e 76, positiva) foi conduzido para avaliação da resposta imune humoral, com pesquisa de anticorpos das classesIgM e IgG contra o antígeno recombinante GroEs do Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MtGroEs). Pacientes com tuberculose pulmonar ativa apresentaram maiores níveis de IgG anti-rGroEs do que indivíduos saudáveis, o que permitiu a discriminação entre os dois grupos e sugeriu resposta imune humoral específica a este antígeno.

ABSTRACT

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the most important public health problems ofthe world, with 8-10 million new cases and 2-3 million deaths each year. About 50 million people are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In order to develop immunodiagnostic tests for TB, several antigens have been tested for the humoral immune response of patients with active TB. ELISA was performed with plasma samples from 45 patients with pulmonary TB and 172 contacts (96 negative and 76 positive for the tuberculin skin test). The humoral immune response was evaluated through assessment of IgM and IgG antibodies against recombinant Mycobacterium tuberculosis GroES (MtGroEs). Patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis had higher levels of IgG anti-rGroEs than healthy individuals, allowing discriminationbetween the two groups.