Quantification of Immune Cell Types and Identification of Cell-Type Specific Biomarker Expression in Pulmonary and Extra-Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients: a pilot study

Tuberculosis(TB) presents a serious healthcare crisis. In high burden, low resource countries, poorhealthcare access, high cost, and laboratorydependence inhibits testing, leading to delays in diagnosis, increasingtransmission and disease severity.  Developmentof affordable, sensitive and rapid diagnostictools for diagnosis of TB may play a vital role in resource-poorsettings, where the incidence of disease is high. The present study may revealthe expression patterns and/or validity of host biomarkers in whole blood ofpatients with PTB, EPTB, as well as in healthy controls, which may informdiagnostic test development. Development of host biomarker-based TB diagnostickits may help clinicians to diagnose and monitor onset and progression ofdisease at an earlier stage and provide solutions where existing diagnosticoptions are inadequate. TB diagnostic kits developed from the output of the present study willimprove both early diagnosis/triage and patient stratification and will be costeffective and specific. They may be considered an alternative for currentdiagnostic tests such as IGRA which lack sensitivity and are inadequateand/or expensive.